Chronicles of the Fall: The Bindings of Conscience
by midori Haru
Summary: Now Naraku's done it, he's done something so heinous it's unspeakable! But will the only person capable of delivering a proper punishment live long enough to do it?
1. Suspension

Voila! A new Part and a new chapter and all before you were really expecting it! Bet you didn't think the break would be so short this time did ya? Well, it was. Welcome to the next edition of Chronicles of the fall. Will anything be resolved this time around? Will Sesshoumaru finally get his claws firmly in Aki? Will Naraku finally be chained up to the side of a torture chamber open to all the fangirls that like their idols dark haired, manipulative and evil? Check it out an see!!!

Okay, I'm better now... What the heck was that anyway? I'm afraid my ANs will be a little off the wall for a bit because the chapters themselves threaten to be serious. Bad chapters! Bad bad bad chapters... but then, serious for me is rather funny anyways. I guess I have kind of a macabre humor sometimes. I've learned to curb it around the freshly dead... they don't appreciate it for some reason.

Okay, okay I'll be serious. I just don't view death and trouble the same way other people do. I'm not going to cry at the funeral of somebody I never liked. If I respected them, I stand quiet and serious, but without tears. In fact, at my grandfather's funeral the year I graduated from high school I was floored by the the tears that were shed be everyone around me. The man was a cantankerous old fart. Sure I liked, I loved him, he was family. but I didn't cry. he'd lived a long life, done a lot of things and still smoked after they put him on oxygen. I even predicted he wouldn't see the next new year in January. I don't feel bad about that, though I do kind of wish I hadn't said it with my parents in the car. I hadn't realized how differently I felt about death when compared to them.

I've since learned to keep my mouth shut. Death doesn't scare me and it bewilders me that others fear it so much. Death is as much a part of life as anything else. The moment we're born we begin to die. And that's not just philosophical words, it is fact. I'm a chemist so it isn't a wonder I feel that way about it.

And it doesn't worry me whether there is life beyond death or not. I don't need a religion to sooth me with what _might_ come next. You live one day into the next and when the time comes, you don't anymore and that is enough for me. Life is like a story. there is a beginning, and because there is a beginning, there is an end to. the key to whether or not it is a good life, story, is if something was accomplished, resolved, achieved.

Oops, sorry! I just got all wishy-washy philosophical and stuff. But it is a view I've expressed through many of my characters. Bright and cheerful, and tormented but alive. Life goes on for me and For Rumiko Takahashi so that her characters might come out of her imagination to play with ours for everyone has at least one. Even if it is only an insertion of self in the story-line.

Heheh. Just read, ignore me. i'm feeling pretty good about myself since this is all ready to go. Hope you enjoy it!

**Suspension**

Ookami are a very family oriented species with strong ties within their clans and tribes, so the highest honor goes not to the warrior with the finest hunting skills or the largest number of physical exploits, but to the females of the pack.

Female wolf youkai, while not exactly rare, are not overly abundant, and fewer still made it through all the rigorous training required of a clan female. Girls were taught how to care for any pups they would have, how to train those pups in everything they would need in order to survive and how to do it all within the structure of the greater pack beyond that located within their familiar den, for all dens are linked. It was perhaps the most vital employment of any member of the clan. The men may be the hunters, but the women taught them how. The males may be the first line of defense, but their mamas trained them to do it first.

Truly some of the best fighters in any of the clans were women and the rest were males they had taught personally.

The future of a pack depended on its central core of females and the daughters they produced and raise. Despite this, girls are in no way coddled or closed off from the world any more than any other member of the pack of the same age. In fact, unmated females are expected to help hunt and otherwise aid in feeding the pack alongside of the males.

At least this was traditionally true when it didn't seem as if _some_thing were purposely hunting down the females and ultimately brutally killing every single one it could get a hold of. If the female happened to be away from the pack far enough, it seemed they were fair game. And it seemed to prefer its females young, the younger the better.

Since it started hunting them down, the packs have been scrambling to protect its daughters, keeping the girls closer to the dens and constantly under the watchful eyes of the elders.

This was fine, for the pups that had yet to grow into the control and strength required to assume a humanoid form. Most often no child that young had any desire to explore the world beyond the home den.

It wasn't the same for the children who had managed to finally get the fuzz from their human faces. It had always been customary for children of this age to start learning how to properly hunt and interact with their four legged brethren beyond the confines of the den. It was looked upon as a rite of passage, the first step into adulthood. For boys, it was a custom the pack could still follow, but for girls…and it was brewing contention and resentment.

The girls wanted just as much to get out and test their newly developing strength and skill. It was an itch under their skin and though the den mothers tried to keep them appeased with other required lessons, there wasn't distraction enough within the den to make them forget completely.

The elders finally acknowledged the growing situation and endeavored to fix it. No unmated female was to leave the den without an escort of furred brethren and at least two youkai brothers for any reason.

Thus it was extremely obvious that the female ookami streaking through the forest was in a great deal of trouble. And she wasn't streaking in the sense that she wasn't wearing any clothing and she wanted people to see, she was streaking in the way her terror had driven her to run so fast as to be no more than a blur of matted, blood coated fur and fear.

Maya couldn't really think past moving forward, moving away from the sight of her slaughtered wolf brothers and four-legged pack members. She didn't want to see more of the blood that she already wore. She didn't want to see the stunned and painful look in their eyes.

Her benumbed mind was running on autopilot, or rather the ancient predecessor of autopilot as the words held no meaning without the existence of planes to pilot or machines that run on their own. She was propelled forward under the power of the last command given her by the stranger that saved her. The stranger that had taken the blow meant for Maya even while ordering her to run.

So Maya ran with all she was, no thought to get in her way, no distraction to slow her down; just the fear of being caught to push her onward and the strong desire to curl up in the heart of the den and weep against the bosom of her clan. If she could only get that far, then perhaps she would be safe.

Out of nowhere strong arms caught her up and she reacted with everything she was. Maya lashed out with everything she had thus far been taught about defense and combat, determined to make it home or at least to inflict as much damage as she could.

"Easy little sister," a familiar voice rumbled in her pointed ear. Slowly a scent registered through the mindless haze of terror that had enveloped her senses. It was a scent she was familiar with and associated positive feelings with, feelings of protection and family. "Where are you hurt?" hands pawed at her skin tenderly after her limbs quit flailing. Furry bodies pressed against her in offer of comfort and support.

The furry ones she welcomed whole-heartedly, but found herself pushing the hands away even as hysteria bubbled up in attempt to consume her. "I'm not hurt, it's not my blood!" Maya got out between sobs in a high keening voice. "The bad man didn't hurt me, not Maya. He didn't get Maya."

Ginta and Hakkaku shared a look as the girl started to shake and dance away from Kouga's hands. No member of the pack had ever done that before.

"Where are your keepers?" Kouga demanded sternly. Somebody wasn't doing their job if the little thing had managed to get this far from the den alone.

Maya's erratic movements stopped and she stood very still without breathing or doing anything at all. Kouga's hackles raised the longer the child stood in front of him without making a sound. The only move she made was the very obvious widening of her eyes. "They're gone! All gone!" she exploded loudly, shaking more violently than before. "He hurt them! He killed them! He tore though them like they weren't even there, but they were there! Maya's keepers were there but they're not anymore! Please don't let them still be there!' She continued on and on, sometimes shrilly, sometimes not, but always streaming words together so quick as to be unintelligible.

Kouga blinked at the child from where he'd reared back in surprise and pain at her volume. The girl's hysteria had escalated and he didn't know how to fix it.

Ayame shoved him to the side, her own wolves moving to mix with the ones still milling around Maya. The red head pushed past the furry bodies in her way and swept Maya up into a tight hold.

The little youkai attempted to struggle upon being caught up once again without real warning. She squirmed and kicked and yelled and sobbed until she wore herself out. Through it all Ayame held on tightly and refused to let go.

"Are you done now, Maya-chan?" Ayame asked as the little girl went nearly completely limp.

"Ayame-san?" Maya sniffed carefully, her breathing still stilted from her somewhat violent fit.

"Yes?" Ayame asked, both to reassure the child and to encourage the flow of words that would hopefully lead to an intelligible explanation.

"They're all gone," Maya choked out as she shook. "We didn't even sense it coming before half the furries were torn to pieces, their shocked eyes staring at the rest of us and the blood running from the sky. All I could see was red, red on the bushes, the grass and the ground. Even the sky looked a little red. Even my elder brothers were covered. That was before the bad man came after the rest of them. They didn't have a chance. They fought so hard and he…he just laughed." The child shuddered violently as the mere memory increased her fear. "He was everywhere, all around me hiding behind the bodies even as they fell. I couldn't do anything. Why couldn't I do anything? They were protecting me and all I could do was stand there!"

"Maya!" Ayame broke in sharply. It was becoming quite clear the child was going to need a great deal of careful attention and coaching to overcome the traumas she'd suffered this day. "Maya," she began gently. "Did the bad man say anything?"

Maya froze completely as the question registered and its meaning sank in. "He said, he said," she tried to start a couple times and failed. "He told Maya things, threatened things that Maya never wants to know about or remember hearing. Then he moved to hurt Maya and the stranger saved Maya." The little girl's eyes regained the focus previously lost. "She saved Maya, told me to run, to get away."

"Who did Maya?" Ayame asked afraid the child would somehow stop making sense again before they managed to find out who or what the villain was.

Kouga clenched his fist with impatience, but otherwise kept quiet. It bothered him, as it bothered every member of the pack, that some lowlife was targeting the females of his people and they knew nothing about the culprit nor could they seem to defend against him. Hell, before now it had only been an assumption that a male was behind it all.

Kouga was completely ready to pin it all on Naraku, but the moment he first mentioned the possibility the elders had warned him against assuming Naraku was behind every act of evil. After all, the vile hanyou had never shown a penchant for useless acts of violence before. What could be gained from such brutality against children in which no witness was left to convey the message, threat or demand? Nothing was being sought after and Naraku never did anything without the possibility of achieving something.

It was against the ookami prince's nature to keep on the defensive, he preferred more active types of problem solving. The full contact sort of problem solving kept him sharp and sane, but he could be patient and set aside his destructive impulses for the good of his people if he had to. Nobody said he had to like it, and complaining was his royal right if he so chose, which wasn't often because Ginta and Hakkaku did it for him.

Now was not the time for complaint, impatience would have to be borne in silence if anything was to be gleaned from the child's experiences.

"Maya," Ayame called sternly but softly, demanding the return of the child's wandering attention. "Who saved you?"

"I don't know," Maya pursed her lips in thought. "I've never met her before."

"What did she look like?" Ayame asked, realizing that Maya was in no way frightened of this woman by the fact the little girl wasn't trying to distance herself from her savior by speaking in third person.

"Her eyes were very green and her hair was extremely pale," Maya remembered, struggling to recall every detail of her hero. "And she was tall, taller even than Garu when the elders first let him lead a hunting team. He was so puffed up with pride and nearly hurt himself from walking so tall," she laughed at the remembered antics of one of her fellows; until she remembered he had been with her when the bad man first attacked. "The bad man killed him," she murmured sadly. Then it struck her that she had left the stranger who had saved her life alone with the one who had killed the third best male warrior of their tribe as easily as pulling petals off a flower.

Maya's eyes widened in horror and she began to struggle out of Ayame's grasp. She couldn't leave anyone to that horrible man with his terrible laugh and awful strength. She'd never be able to live with herself.

"Maya, what is it?" Ayame demanded somewhat angrily as she struggled to hold onto the younger youkai.

"Maya left her behind with the bad man," the child cried in a mixture of fear and determination. "The bad man will hurt her," she couldn't bring herself to admit that it was likely the man had already killed the stranger. "She helped Maya get away. She stayed to fight him."

Maya finally broke free and darted back the way she had come too fast for Ayame to catch her. "Kouga!" Ayame yelled at the male. Her fancy for the prince held no bearing when weighted against the safety of the pack.

The wolf prince managed to catch the little demon with his artificially enhanced speed but had trouble keeping a grip on her as she immediately arched her back in continued attempts to travel back to where she had left her hero behind.

"Maya!" Kouga growled at the child. The girl stilled in sudden fright. "It's all right Maya, but it is obvious to me that the stranger wanted you to be safe. You don't want to disappoint her do you?" Maya shook her head stiffly. "Then let Ayame, Ginta and Hakkaku take you back to the den." The little girl began to struggle with him again. "Maya! Go back to the den and I promise that I will go help your friend." His friends gave him disapproving looks and Ayame nearly growled at him. "I'll go see if she's still there," he ignored them. As a leader within the pack he could see that his people owed the stranger at least that much.

"Kouga!" Ayame did growl.

"Maya, will you go now?" Kouga continued to ignore her.

"You promise? You'll help her and not let the bad man hurt her more?" the child demanded.

"If he's still there, I swear I'll not let him do more than he already has," Kouga replied carefully. He didn't want to get caught breaking promises because he misspoke, especially not with Maya's trust in as vulnerable a state as it was after the proof of evil and duplicity had made such a strong recent impression. "Will you go?"

Maya nodded decisively, and then patted Kouga's clawed hand gently. "Be careful," she whispered. "The bad man will get you if you're not."

Kouga nodded at the child seriously and released her from his arms.

Maya nodded back one last time before walking to Ayame to tug on the older woman's hand.

"Kouga," Ginta whined in protest when the youkai in question gestured for them to leave.

"Return them to the safety of the den," Kouga growled firmly. The safety of a female pack member held priority over foolish worry over a premier male, any female. Besides, Kouga could take care of himself; he had the jewel shards.

"Come on," Ayame grumbled at them crossly. She was generally upset with the whole situation, but even _she_ wasn't allowed out of the den without two male escorts and a throng of wolves, and as there was a limited supply of both where they currently stood she would just have to resign herself to the prodding of circumstance. Not that she had to like it any better than Ginta and Hakkaku.

Kouga turned around and left with a badly concealed look of annoyance. He didn't need looking after. By the time he got where he was going the bad guy was liable to be done finishing off Maya's rescuer and well away from possible discovery and punishment. The bastard always was terribly fast for a screwball.

The wolf prince could smell the scene of the crime long before he reached it. The strong scent of mass death was truly unforgettable. And unmistakable. It was such an unwholesome stench that reeked of spilled blood and loosened bowel of the dead and dieing.

It wasn't until Kouga actually saw the carnage creating the smell that he realized his assumed version of events was actually a great deal tamer than he had imagined could be possible. The blood of his brothers was everywhere, staining the grass, the ground, even the tree branches that managed to still reach out over the death site of his comrades. It had been a massacre.

Pieces of bodies he refused to recognize as real, as familiar friends, were strewn everywhere, absolute proof that whomever had done this bit of work had truly torn the bodies asunder and with little effort judging by the expressions of surprise he could see on the few faces that had enough features to support such a look.

The scene was horrific and gruesome to the point Kouga felt that he, a seasoned warrior, might look a little green the way Kagome does upon occasion. The combination of smells, sights and the terrible thought that little Maya had been forced to face this view alone and in the midst of its creation made his normally steady stomach heave ever so violently. And that was before he heard the gasping breath of something amidst the bits and pieces still fighting to live. The likelihood of it being one of his people was exceedingly slim which meant that whoever it was had (apparently) provided the costly distraction Maya had needed to get away.

The wolf prince set aside his reluctance right then, his people, his clan at least, owed this stranger far more than could be easily dismissed. Quite likely some serious effort would have to be made in order to repay this debt. All thoughts of repayment were shoved from his mind when he realized he needed all of his brain cells to focus on finding this person in the mayhem of red before him.

The harder he looked the more movement he saw in the scene before him, phantom gestures in the peripheral of his vision. Thankfully before he head the chance to truly embarrass himself by starting at shadows a painful cough was dragged from the only other living throat in the vicinity. Given a proper direction, he bolted through the blood sticky waving fronds of the foliage.

Beyond the majority of the gore was a patch of blood occupied by a single body, the sight of which made Kouga wish he hadn't eaten the entire week before.

There lying on the ground leaking blood from wounds that wrapped lovingly around her body, was Aki, promised and practically mate of the Lord of the Western Lands. He didn't fully understand the intimate details of their relationship, but it didn't take a genius to realize that if she died when he could have done something it would be the end of his clan, if not his species all together. Sesshoumaru's rage wouldn't even spare the trees. The dens would be completely demolished, possibly flooded or just shaken down. Nightmarish visions of drowned comrades filled his head even as he approached her sprawled figure on the ground.

Aki opened her eyes, fighting through a haze of pain just to see and breath when the wolf youkai came into her rather limited range of view. Between pants for air she managed to greet him, "I should have known she was a friend of yours." She ended with a cough and a painful swallow. The muscles of her throat pulled at the gouges on her chest that ringed the one side of her neck. These bloody necklaces were the least of her problems and she didn't bother to remark on them or any of her other wounds suffered in the course of protecting the life of a child she didn't know. "Did she get away?" Aki rasped, demanding assurance that her effort had been successful.

"Maya found us," Kouga answered absently as he tried to decipher what this woman could mean by risking life and limb for one of his people when they clearly did not get along. "Why would you help her?"

Aki blinked slowly surprised that he would ask something so stupid. "I won't let anyone harm a child if I can help it, especially not that bastard," her eyes flashed a bit of red on the last word but it faded quickly and he wondered if he imagined it.

"But she's one of my people," Kouga shook his head in confusion as he came even closer to get a better look at the damage her attacker had wrought.

"What's your point?" Aki gasped in pain when Kouga reached out and gently prodded one of her many wounds. "I don't dislike Kagura and Kanna just because Naraku's an asshole." Again her eyes flashed red and faded too quickly for the wolf to be certain of what he saw.

Kouga shook his head, "the bastard did a number on you." There was so much blood he didn't know where to start. It was looking like even if he _did_ manage to start, it wouldn't do her any good, which was strange for someone as powerful as Aki was supposed to be. If he didn't do something fast, Sesshoumaru really would decimate his people.

"Naraku would," Aki rolled her eyes and let them slide shut, tired of looking at the furry guy hunched down beside her. The wolf youkai uselessly gathered up the pieces of torn fabric she had been wearing and tried to clad her more private places. He really wasn't very bright she mused absently.

Kouga wasn't really thinking about what his hands were doing. There was something he could do that might help Aki, might give her a fighting chance to live through this, but it would likely get him into a lot of trouble with his pack _and_ Sesshoumaru. HE shook his head, his pack he could handle and Sesshoumaru was going to be pissed no matter what he did.

The ookami sighed wearily, the situation wearing on him and his stupid sense of responsibility. He would just have to adopt Aki as a member of the pack, officially and irrefutably.

Adoption of the type he was contemplating was extremely rare among the wolves or even any other species of youkai. Outsiders were not commonly welcomed into even the outermost circles of interaction with the pack. It was seldom that someone was trusted enough to be elevated to the status of pack membership, even rarer for someone of Aki's age to even be considered.

The older the candidate the greater the likelihood of deviousness and betrayal, for once adopted into the pack, the decision was final.

Normally a number of elders would deliberate over the decision for days before a verdict could be reached and most often the answer was no. The last time adoption had been considered, Kouga had been a barely weaned pup and the candidate had been an abandoned human child left to the elements by the brigands that had murdered its parents. The final decision had ruled against adoption, but the pack had helped the child survive to maturity in any case.

There wasn't time to call the elders to debate this issue and Aki needed the aid of the pack's strength to survive the damage she'd sustained defending one of his people. What he knew of her, he knew to be honest and good despite his personal opinion of her. This was the second time she had saved a female of his pack at high personal risk and he knew she would ask for nothing in repayment, she never had.

His pack's debt was enough to cover the headache he was sure to suffer when the elders caught wind of what he was planning.

The specifics of the ceremony required that he mix the blood of at least three members of the pack with that of the one being adopted. This presented a problem, as he was quite clearly alone, but that was likely to remedy itself when the two idiots that followed him would track him down at the first opportunity. The biggest problem was figuring out how to mix their blood with hers without hers mixing into theirs. He hadn't forgotten how efficient Aki's curse was and the pack had to be protected for any part of his plan to work.

Aki reached out, every movement painful, and pinched him. "Whatever you're thinking, don't," she panted. All of the incidental defensive wounds up and down her arms ached with a renewed sharpness due to her efforts. She welcomed it as they distracted her from the worst of her wounds. The wound that wrapped from the side of her right hip around her front under her breast and behind her left shoulder. It wasn't particularly deep, but it made every movement, every breath painful and difficult to take.

Kouga almost snarled at her intrusion of his thoughts and her mistaken belief that she could tell him what to do. It was one of many reasons he didn't really like her. Although, it was possible his opinion had been formed in a desire to be different from every other person that ever met her. To Maya she was a hero, after even first meeting her. He distrusted someone with the general good opinion of everybody, even though she'd never given him reason to really dislike her, her mild teasing aside.

He had willfully disregarded one of his earliest lessons on judging others. One should look to a person's friends to judge them based, not on who those friends were, but how those friends were treated and reacted to that bond of friendship.

Aki was clearly one of the best of people if she could inspire such loyalty in her friends that one of them would keep to a promise made even after death.

Where were those two idiots anyway! They needed to get here already so they could get this done and he could stop thinking about how stupid he had been when judging her. Seriously, he knew better! His sensei would be up in arms to beat the shit out of him, and that was if she was in a good mood.

Aki pinched him again and he really did growl at her this time. "I told you not to," she wasted the breath to admonish him. Kouga having a bought of serious thought only served to make her uneasy. She suspected Kouga thinking was a lot like Inuyasha thinking; it could only end in violence. "Stop thinking so hard."

"Stop talking," Kouga growled at her when she gave further indication of severe pain. Aki snorted at him and instantly regretted it when the pain everywhere spiked. She took two more severely painful breaths before her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out.

Kouga jumped to his feet in alarm. This wasn't good! The unconsciousness preceded the dieing and the dieing lead to a massacre of his people. Where were Ginta and Hakkaku? He swore he would beat the crap out of them for being so slow!

Luckily, for Kouga, the two hapless wolf brothers made an appearance right about then. And it was almost only good for the wolf prince, for Ginta and Hakkaku suffered for their leaders impatience and Aki suffered a moment longer for his venting.

Then Kouga pulled out his seldom-used sword and sliced open his hand. He squeezed the wound in his fist so that his blood would drip into Aki's largest wound. Then he grabbed up a startled Hakkaku's hand and did the same to him.

"Eh? Kouga!" Ginta yelped in shock when the wolf prince grabbed his hand to repeat the process.

"Don't touch her until it heals," Kouga growled commandingly.

"Kouga, do you realize what you've done?" Hakkaku demanded and licked over the cut in his palm.

"I've adopted her as pack. She would have died without the strength of the pack," Kouga growled defensively. The fact that Aki could still die anyway didn't need voicing.

"But the elders…" Hakkaku began.

Kouga caught the wolf brother up against the nearest tree with a growl. "You'd rather we did nothing and she died? I'll be sure to let Maya know that and the Lord of the Western Lands as well."

Hakkaku blanched and Ginta wedged himself between the two hoping to preserve the health of his pack brother.

"She gained those wounds defending our female, the second time she has saved a pack female," the wolf prince growled once again.

"We know that Kouga," Ginta struggled to loosen Kouga's grip on Hakkaku. "We know Aki is worthy. The elders don't though. That's what he meant."

"It doesn't matter because it's already done," Kouga sighed as he finally let Hakkaku down.

"The elders will probably let it go when they find out she brings ties with the Western Lord," Hakkaku offered as an olive branch.

Kouga blinked at him a minute, then began to laugh as he really thought about it. Aki was part of his pack now, so Sesshoumaru would have to negotiate with the elders if he wanted to court her. It was entirely too much. Since he had been the one to first offer his blood, he would be seen as her father and therefore it was his permission the taiyoukai would have to ultimately gain and that was after gaining the go ahead from the pack elders. Just imagining the flaming hoops he could make the great dog jump through delighted him.

"What will who have to let go?" a voice interrupted his musing and mirth. It was the voice of someone that hadn't been there before.

Damnit, and he was so enjoying his thoughts too…


	2. The Pendulum

So...what did you think about that ending? Bwa hahahaha! Who is it that just walked in on the Wolves and their plots? Is Aki still going to live through everything? And just what the hell will Sesshoumaru think about all this?

My Lovely reviewer Kaikie told me she found it hard to believe that Sesshoumaru _would_ jump through firey hoops about anything. She believed that Kouga's little vision was a pipe dream...Well it was, but for a completely different reason. See, even if the wolf prince did try to make the taiyoukai bend over backwards to gain permission to mate AKi, the one person left almost completely out of the question is AKi. WE know Aki doesn't follow orders. WE know she doesn't even consider him and his pack friends let alone family, so by the time Sesshoumaru would be seeking to renew the mating contract with AKi (which we know will be like two seconds after she's released from the curse) will make it impossible for Kouga to have gained enough ground in her esteem for her to even consider his opinion when making the decision. Aki runs her life, nobody else. Not Adoptive family, not dead friends, not Loki and Not Sesshoumaru, Just Aki. And if Fred knew what the Ookami had been imagining he would soooo be laughing his ass off right now!

And if you were hoping things would suddenly turn rosy and funny in this chapter... well you were only half right. Certain characters can't help but be funny most of the time, especially when paired with certain others. However, the overall tone of this chapter is definitely not rosy...well It's red, but not in a happy way.

And I'm not giving away hints! There isn't enough left to this fic to cope for handing out hints! You'll find out what's happening when it happens. Just know that rather like Rumiko Takahashi's many works, trouble doesn't just go away, at least not for long. Trouble lingers just like in real life sometimes.

And now for something completely different - I can't find my GRE score report for the general exam I took. Why do colleges ask you to report the scores when they ask you to send them to the institution? It's majorly annoying and has me stumped on at least two college apps for weeks now because I can't find the stupid sheet. WEll NO MORE!!! I'm mailing the little suckers out without the scores! They're receiving the reports aleady, that should be enough!

I don't even know why they want to test you into a grad school anyway. Haven't you already proven your mettle as an undergrad if you graduated with a decent GPA and are still looking to continue school? Bah! So obnoxious! But I'll not be staying home another year and I want my apps out by the first so This WILL happen! Huzzah!!

OH by the way, my work schedule has gone all bonkers on me and I no longer habitually have WEdnesdays off for some reason. So the posting schedule may get a little haywire but I WILL be posting every week until I run out of chapters. Speaking of chapters, the first chapter of the next part is completely written and I've got a good start on the second. The final part of this fic is looking to only be about 3 or 4 chapters. It may seem short, but when what I'm doing is tieing up loose ends and finally giving away nearly all the pertinent secrets, that's about all there is. I told you the story would run about 60+ chapters.

And before I forget, I'm thinking of taking all this down and reposting the story as one big fic when it's done. It was originally meant to be one story but I broke it up so I could start posting it. What do you think?

**The Pendulum**

There is no shame in being completely useless in a fight despite what certain volatile, violent, moronic males might in their close-minded brashness say, time and again. Fred knew this. He was secure in this knowledge, even if it did irk him something terrible that he couldn't personally lay Naraku out on his ass every time the foul bastard came within miles of Aki.

But Fred was a realist…as much of a realist as a dead guy with no preservation instincts could be, which isn't very realistic at all. So really, he just did what, through experience, he knew he could do. And that was to go for help the minute Aki raised the Naraku alert.

Thankfully, since Fred had discovered his own ability to jump to wherever a fragment of Aki's soul happened to be this was not quite as time consuming as it used to be. And since Aki had the bad habit of handing out little bits of her soul to the flotsam of the feudal era, Fred would seemingly have plenty of people to choose from. Excepting he had to be familiar enough with the piece to be able to pick it out of the line up of others to be certain he didn't pop into one of Naraku's planning sessions with Kanna or Kohaku. Which basically meant he could only really go to Kikyou for help.

Popping up randomly next to Kanna or Kohaku wouldn't exactly land _him_ in a lot of trouble to be sure, but the kids would be an entirely different manner. And if he were to be the cause of any trouble for them, Aki would put him in the hot seat regardless of whether it had ultimately been for her benefit or not. Besides, he wasn't familiar enough with either piece of soul to pull it off.

He was familiar enough with the soul fragment Kikyou possessed. He ought to be with the amount of time he spent trying to feel the miko up, he thought to himself with a lecherous grin. The grin quickly melted away as he finally located the piece of soul he was looking for and disappeared from the spot Aki had left him in.

At least she had bothered to warn him of what she intended to put herself into. Aki was notorious for running head long into situations that have absolutely nothing to do with her. Sadly, Aki's terrible habit of helping others often got her into trouble of the more painful type. Lately it tended to include Naraku as well.

It was clear the despicable hanyou was targeting her. Each new creation tested Aki's many unknown abilities. The black furred beast had only been the first creation in a string of different, disposable minions wreaking havoc in Aki's vicinity. Naraku had learned quickly that it was the easiest way to drag her out into the open and where he wanted her to be.

Fred figured the conniving bastard was running experiments with Aki as the test subject. He wanted to know what she was capable of; what she could do and what she would do. It was like all the fitness and mental tests from grade school, but on a lethal level.

And it showed in the wounds his friend suffered, making him quite happy he had Kikyou pretty much on speed dial for emergencies. Not that it actually was that quick, being a ghost limited his speed but at least it wouldn't take as long as it would if Aki hadn't gone around handing out pieces of her soul like candy.

Fred would never let that go even if the pay off was proving to be as huge as it had been thus far. Besides, Naraku was finding ways around Kanna's "inabilities" and Kohaku's "distance related" insubordination. The jerk was even starting to take Kagura's "willful incompetence" into account when perfecting his many faceted devious plans. It could only mean bad things for Aki.

Not that Fred didn't care about all the other people suffering because of Naraku; he did, just not as much as he worried for his friend and anchor. After all, no Aki meant no Fred to haunt and taunt and otherwise annoy the hell out of the living, which was a very unwanted thing in his mind. Everybody needed Fred around to annoy them; it was fun – for him.

Speaking of endangering Aki, he really needed to focus on getting to the dead miko. Something about the trouble Aki had sensed had worried her enough to warn him in advance. Normally she didn't bother, and usually she was right, she didn't' always need the help of a healer by the time she had vanquished the latest troublemaker annoyance.

But Aki was starting to stretch herself a little thin. She was worn and tired; her nights having become restless and almost as wearying as her long days and Naraku's Bumps-in-the-road were taking their toll. At least that's what he suspected after watching Aki wake up with slowly disappearing rings under her eyes. He wondered why she always seemed tired, and the more time dragged on the worse things got. At least she was eating more regularly, when she could anyway. Occasionally Naraku's perpetual assholic behavior would force her to miss a meal or two, but it couldn't be helped and she made up for it at the first opportunity.

Fred suddenly wished it was Sesshoumaru he had the magic link to. The icicle lord was always a great sleep aid for his friend. He kind of felt she could really use one after this. A good rest would do Aki a world of good and help undo days of exhaustion. Plus the taiyoukai would be great at killing off the creeps Aki kept running into.

It was the singular trait all of Naraku's toy soldiers had in common. They held a compulsory attraction to Aki. Sometimes that attraction made them want to eat her, lick her, strangle her or just plain snot all over her, but most of the time, once they caught wind of her they tracked her down with unshakable persistence.

Normally Aki didn't seem to mind, if the bad guys were chasing her then they weren't hunting down somebody less capable of fighting them off. Occasionally though, the bad guys persistence did bother her, because any hapless person, animal or plant that got in their way was plowed down with absentminded abandon. She did try to steer clear of populated areas, but she didn't have an accurate map in her pocket with all the villages, hunting trails and isolated huts marked on it. She had only her own senses and Fred to guide her, both of which had proven fallible more than once.

Fred shook the thought away. Those poor chickens hadn't stood a chance. Aki's pursuer had plowed through the farmers hut and demolished the lean-to his chickens had roosted in. There had been feathers everywhere. He was just thankful Aki had been too preoccupied with keeping the chicken-slayer from becoming an Aki-slayer too.

Fred went poof and found his favorite dead miko to annoy glaring right at him. He was majorly surprised before his mind caught up with him. There was no way Kikyou could have been expecting him. He looked behind him to see what she was really glowering at.

There wasn't anything behind him except a pair of shivering conifers. So on a whim, Fred decided to ask the fire breathing dragon lady what she was really doing. After all, if he pissed her off there was a ready cure available. "I don't know what the trees did to you, but I'm sure it doesn't warrant a glare that fierce," he said mildly.

Kikyou rolled her eyes at his special problems of observation. "What is wrong with Aki?" the miko demanded seriously.

Fred blinked at her slowly coming to terms with his surprise that she had both been expecting him and knew vaguely why he had appeared. "How did you –" he began, determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. It completely slipped his mind that getting side tracked right now was a bad idea for Aki's health.

"I could sense Aki before, then suddenly I couldn't anymore," Kikyou cut him off, attempting to speed up this needless conversation. She had always had a general awareness of Aki's existence on a nearly instinctual level, which was odd considering Kikyou's body was made of clay and dirt didn't seem to have a need for instincts. "Now what is wrong with Aki?"

"She said she could sense Naraku 'misbehaving' before she took off on me," Fred shrugged.

"I didn't ask for the whole story," Kikyou snapped in annoyance. "I just want to know what's wrong with Aki!"

"I don't know!" Fred yelled. "When Aki suddenly comes back to where I'm still hovering and tells me Naraku's making trouble up ahead I don't ask 'just how hurt do you think you'll get so I can tell Kikyou when she asks?' I bolt for help so that by the time we get back Aki won't have been suffering through the entire trip. She knew she was going to get hurt so I came to get you. Now instead of moving towards where Aki needs us, you give me the third degree by demanding the impossible." He growled with a glare at the speechless miko. "Is that enough? If you're satisfied that I haven't given you the runaround can we go?"

"I'm waiting on you, idiot," Kikyou declared dryly. "We could have already been moving, but you decided to throw a tantrum and waste time."

"I so wish I could beat you," Fred grumbled.

"Could you move and grumble at the same time?" Kikyou demanded in exasperation.

Fred continued to grumble as he directed the miko with barely restrained gestures.

Though he was exceedingly quiet, Kikyou could easily distinguish the words "bitch", "unreasonable" and "stupid" peppered throughout his nearly silent tirade. Whether he said these in relation to her or Aki was impossible to discern, so she didn't bother to take offense at any of it. Besides, it was sort of amusing to watch the ghost steam at the supposed injustice of his plight, forgetting entirely that he volunteered for it by using Aki for an anchor. That and it was a rare delicacy for Kikyou to completely annoy the ghost _this_ much, normally he was very glib about everything she said and she was the one who wound up either pissed or stunned by his behavior, especially with his tendency for wandering hands.

He'd developed that particular habit after the tantrum Inuyasha threw over Fred's "Kiss and make up" antics. Kikyou still couldn't get over how smug the ghost had been when Inuyasha planted one on Kagome. She personally hadn't really cared a wit that the hanyou had kissed someone else.

To be completely honest, since Kikyou was dead – kissing a living guy wasn't all that exciting. She couldn't really feel the warmth of a living body, not unless there was high fever burning under the skin. She had very little need to breath and even less need of sleep.

If Inuyasha had been a more beautiful sleeper, maybe…nah! The hanyou was annoying awake, in a coma, or just sleeping. Part of the reason she wanted to drag him to hell was _because_ he was so annoying. She figured death was the only cure for it.

Now kissing a dead man, even if it was Fred, threw sparks through her senses so intensely that she completely forgot the desire to live again. Which was saying something considering all the dead had was a memory of life and the strong desire to reclaim it. It was probably why she let him get away with so much. That and the strong desire to avoid ever finding out what undead indigestion was like. Fred could probably do that.

It wasn't long before Fred and Kikyou came close enough to where Aki apparently was to hear voices and mild scuffling in progress. As the misbehaving ookami came into view, Kikyou was left speechless at the amount of blood she could see.

It was everywhere, in the grass, in the dirt, in the leaves over head. The whole scene was drenched in red, like a painter had taken a bucket of red paint and splashed it up against everything, the trees, the ground, the body lying next to the wolves.

"-probably will let it go when they find out she brings ties with the Western Lord," one of the two flunkies that followed the wolf prince around said in a placating way. Kikyou could never keep their names straight, so she didn't' bother to try. They were Moron 1 and Moron 2 to her, and completely interchangeable at that.

"What will who let go?" Fred demanded before identifying Aki, torn and bleeding on the ground. "Aki!"

Kikyou shoved past Moron 1 and the ookami prince to kneel beside the unconscious woman. "Why isn't at least one of you trying to stop her bleeding?" Kikyou demanded as she quickly removed the useless rags keeping her from properly examining Aki.

"We are trying!" Kouga snarled at the rude, undead, smelly miko. "The blood is already slowing!"

"But it isn't stopping!" Kikyou shot back as she gingerly ran her fingers over various bruises and abrasions to check for damage under the surface. "You," she pointed at Moron 2 with a besmirched finger, "start collecting firewood and get a fire going and you," she pointed to Moron 1, "Get me some water. We need to clean the wounds and the thread I'll need to sew stitches with."

"Stop ordering them around," Kouga growled.

"Fine then, but you have to watch while Aki dies of infection," Kikyou snarled back.

"The strength of the pack would never allow that to happen!" Kouga protested.

"What the hell are you spouting?" Fred demanded then took a good look at all three ookami. Each was sporting a wound they couldn't have picked up in battle. At least, not the without picking up more than just that if they were participating in the same fight that had cut ribbons out of Aki. The superficial cuts likewise couldn't' be from any other fight, they were too fresh. Such minor scratches would have sealed up and healed over before they got here. "What did you do?"

"Never mind that stupid," the dead miko snorted. "Story time comes after the fire and the hot water! Move it!"

Ginta and Hakkaku jumped into action under the spur of Kikyou's commanding tone. They were so used to following orders they hadn't even realized what they did until the work was already begun. By then, it would look sillier to stop than to finish. They comforted themselves with the knowledge that their labors ultimately benefited Aki and not the animated miko of grave soil.

Despite their reluctance, they soon had a decent blaze going in no time. Fred helped them by finding Aki's bag, which made boiling the water a lot easier with her iron pan.

Kikyou ignored the wolves for the most part; she had other work to do. She didn't exactly have thread on her person, but hair from a youkai was sturdy enough to do the job. If the hair was of the very youkai being stitched, then it would more easily absorb into the flesh as the wound healed than the traditionally used materials most healers would use.

Which was just as well since Aki's hair was the longest of those present. "Hand me your sword," Kikyou demanded of the only able-bodied person in the group not doing something.

"Listen, wench-" Kouga began before sputtering to a stop when Kikyou reached over and grabbed the thing from his sheath.

Kikyou picked up a chunk of Aki's bloody hair and began to saw it off trying to keep the strands as long as possible.

Fred groaned and covered his eyes with his hand, not that it did him a lick of good since he was transparent. Aki wasn't going to like this! Her long tresses were being mowed short, close to her head. By the time Kikyou was done, she would have a wild short cut, like a typical boy who's gone too long between visits to his barber.

This was not good; Aki had a connection to her mother with her long hair. The ghost didn't want to imagine the reaction to seeing it shorn so badly. But there was nothing to be done about it. Necessity demanded the sacrifice and Fred knew it. All he could do is prepare to help his friend get through it, a brand new nightmare come true.

"Water's boiling," Ginta announced after a short debate with his usual crony.

"No it isn't!" Hakkaku shook his head. Apparently their debate should've lasted longer.

"Yes it is, there are bubbles rising to the top!" Ginta argued.

"The bubbles are from you bumping it," Hakkaku disagreed.

Kikyou grabbed the hot pan and poured the water into a bowl one of the brothers had found. "Heat some more," Kikyou ordered as she gave the fire-warmed pan back to Moron 1.

"Ow! Hot!" he dropped it to suck on his fingers with a glare at his laughing brother.

"I'm not tending any other wounds than Aki's," Kikyou growled coldly over the laughing and the mild complaints. "Get some more water to heating or I'll give you both burns you'll be healing from for months!"

The pair blanched before darting to get more water.

Kikyou poured some of the water over the end of Aki's largest wound before carefully submerging some of the freshly harvested hair in the hot water. The miko separated out a single strand and got to work stitching it up.

Stitching was slow and boring work that Fred didn't' really need to watch. "So what the hell did you do to Aki?" he demanded of the annoying, useless wolf prince.

"I adopted her into the pack," Kouga declared angry at being questioned by a guy he couldn't pound for it.

"Are you crazy?" Fred exclaimed in slight panic. "Aki is cursed! What the hell good did you think you could do by –"

"By adopting Aki, we lend her the pack strength!" Kouga cut him off.

"It's something of a pack phenomenon," Ginta offered when the ghost looked ready to explode.

"A strong pack can offer substantial support to its members over great distances," Hakkaku nodded in further explanation.

"What kind of support?" Fred demanded.

"The strongest packs can prevent death from bleeding by augmenting the personal healing abilities of the wounded," Ginta clarified.

"And it can prevent infection and disease," Hakkaku added. "Our pack has been stretched rather thin though."

"Shut up!" Kouga cuffed the previously abused ookami. "That's none of their business! They're not pack!"

"But Kouga, Aki is pack and he's her ghost," Ginta point out.

"And Kikyou has a piece of Aki's soul," Fred added with a shrug.

"What?" Hakkaku gasped.

"Would you be quiet?" Kikyou hissed as Aki shifted and threw her off her work. "You're disturbing her rest and making my job more difficult! Unless you think you can stitch up her wounds properly…" The wolf brothers shook their heads vociferously. "Then keep that fire burning, stay out of my light, and maintain a continuous supply of clean hot water."

"How bad is it?" Fred asked with concern.

"Aki's blood paints the local vegetation and you ask how bad it is," Kikyou snorted. "It's not bad, it's horrific! It's impossible to tell what that bastard did first and whether it matters in the long run. It's hard to tell where to begin that won't leave her bleeding out anywhere else in the meantime. I need half a dozen hands just to get started and I only have two," the miko sighed. "But you make a start anyway, because it's more horrifying not to."

Kouga growled and dug out a white garment from the mysterious bag that had held so many other helpful supplies. The wolf prince dipped the entire thing into the latest batch of hot water and proceeded to wash the excess blood from Aki's wounds, Kouga grumbled. "That's your job, we'll take care of the rest."

"Watch what you're doing!" Fred yelled "You mix one drop of her blood into yours and that's it for your entire pack."

"But we already mixed our blood with hers," Hakkaku murmured.

Kouga cringed inwardly when the miko's hands paused in their work.

"What?" She asked blankly.

"It's a required part of the adoption," Ginta shrugged.

Kikyou's eyes flashed at Kouga, "Do you not remember what happened to the beast Aki infected with her blood?"

"Get back to stitching woman, she's dieing from your inattention!" Kouga snarled at the wench. "Besides, none of Aki's blood could have infected them or me."

"Yeah Kouga made sure ours dripped onto her and forbade us from touching her after that," Ginta defended the deeds of his leader.

Kikyou seemed to let it go after that, especially after glimpsing the completely healed over palm of his hand.

"Are you stupid or just slow?" Fred demanded. "I'm dead here, and not from any blood mixing! For all you know it could just be a matter of time before the curse recognizes the foreign blood in her system and lashes out at all those that carry it!"

"Well it's too late to fix it now!" Kouga yelled back. "Don't underestimate the strength of the pack!"

"Don't overestimate the strength of your pack either!" Fred growled in return.

"Both of you shut up!" Kikyou yelled. "One problem at a time!"

"Yes," a hoarse voice gasped out. "Save tomorrow's worries for tomorrow."

"Aki," Fred would've gasped out if he could actually breath.

Her tired unfocused eyes moved in his general direction before blinking and offering a painful sigh. "Give me a fighting chance and I'll make everything right again." She winced as Kikyou made another stitch. She opened her weary eyes again and saw another ookami shaped blob step closer, "Maya-"

"Is safe in the den," Ginta whispered aware of how painful it must be for Aki to talk.

"Ayame is taking good care of her with the rest of the pack," Hakkaku added quietly. "The oldest den mother will have her wrapped in the biggest, softest pelt and the other pups will be curled up close to her until the shaking stops." He described the scene for her.

"And when the pups must leave her for mealtimes or lessons, her furred brothers and sisters will nose closer to keep the nightmares away," Ginta continued. "The pack will take care of her and help her heal as long as it takes."

Aki swallowed painfully and sighed again before slipping into unconsciousness.

"How did you know that's was she needed to hear?" Kikyou wondered aloud as she made another stitch.

Hakkaku shrugged as Ginta answered. "She saved Maya, stood between Maya and the danger so that Maya could get away. I thought she might like to know it had worked."

"Who is Maya?" Fred demanded, utterly confused by this one point.

"A pack female barely old enough to be let out of the den's safety," Kouga answered absently. "And that's after the age for girls let into the world was raised and further restricted.

"Something's been hunting down the girls," Ginta frowned as he refilled the miko's bowl. "Maya's the first one to survive after an attack."

"Even with an escort of two Ookami and a full contingent of furry ones," Hakkaku added.

"How long has this been going on?" Fred demanded.

Kikyou glanced up from her work to the Ookami prince dabbing at Aki's wounds across from her. "That is what Ayame desired to talk with you about," her memory was incredibly long as was the memory of most dead people. "Naraku had already been preying upon your people by that point."

"We didn't' know it was Naraku before today, but the attacks had been going on for more than one moon cycle at that point," Kouga replied evenly, disliking having to share the information, but resigned to do it in any case. "They couldn't seem to get to the scene of the attack before several hours had already passed."

"They were hoping that you with your enhanced speed would be able to catch him before damage was done," Kikyou nodded as she returned to her work.

"But I was never fast enough," he growled tiredly. "And the aftermath is not prettier fresh than cold. You didn't have to see it in your direction."

"I'm just glad Maya got out of it without a scratch on her," Hakkaku sighed.

"Yeah," Ginta shrugged. "But it will probably be a while before she can trust pack males again, and even then she may never be able to go beyond casual touching with anyone."

Fred shook his head, "Don't go into helping her with expectations like that. If you expect her to ultimately fail in overcoming her trauma, then she will fail because your efforts will be altered because of it. It may take a long time, maybe even longer than you think it should, but she'd very likely to get over it eventually. Humans do and they have less time than Maya does."

"If she doesn't, that's no failure," Kikyou scolded the ghost. "She is young and has nearly no other experiences to draw strength from."

Fred leaned his head back in thought. "So long as she survives it she'll get past it all one day at a time," he offered gently.

"Like Aki?" Kikyou smiled as her bowl received another batch of hot water.

"Like everybody in the world," Fred corrected her. "No matter what happens, life marches on, the most steadfast of soldiers."

"How long do you think this'll take?" Kouga asked.

"Well into dawn on this one," Kikyou gestured at the long red oozing line left to be stitched. "And then I'll see about the others. Hopefully by then they'll have closed up a little better and won't need it. Until then, try to keep pressure on them to slow the bleeding." She showed him how with the wet garment he had been using to clean away excess blood. "Try to keep it clean as best you can." Kikyou scooped up some of her warmed water to pour over the next bit she planned to stitch. "You three can probably take turns throughout the night."

"I've got it thanks," Kouga declared shortly.

"Do not let your pride threaten Aki's life!" Kikyou chastised him angrily. "There is no one here to impress."

"It is not his pride," Ginta stated. "Kouga's blood was the first applied, so he is her parent in the pack. The stronger her tie is to him, the better the pack strength can help her."

"For a strong tie to develop, the first day and night are very important," Hakkaku explained. "The more contact he maintains, the better for Aki."

"Then why doesn't he strip down and get all friendly with her side," Fred asked drolly.

"Because Aki is not a child or infant," Hakkaku answered seriously. "Of course in that case, Aki would've been more likely to have a female parent to the pack."

"Even if the circumstances were the same?" Ginta asked.

"I don't' know it's never happened before," Hakkaku scrunched up his face in thought. "They might just find something less covering but still…I don't know?"

"You do realize Aki's only twenty years old, right?" Fred added, just to make the situation more interesting.

Kouga snorted, slightly in disbelief, but mostly in annoyance. Apparently he liked being talked about as if he wasn't present just as much as Inuyasha did, which is not at all. "Fine ghost! You want me to 'strip down' I will!"

"That's perfectly all right, I don't need an anatomy lesson," Fred smiled brightly. "I'm quite familiar with my own."

"What dead and shriveled up in impotency?" the wolf prince retorted. "Or are you just afraid I might be more impressive than you ever could've been?"

"Enough with the male posturing!" Kikyou exclaimed in defense of her poor undead sensibilities. If she had to listen to their conversation much longer she really would find out just what it was like to throw up a soul.


	3. Through the Eyes of a Child

Hello again! Third times the friggin' charm! That's right, I had an Author's note written up right here. Twice! And each time I go to hit that save button damn ffn loses it and the editing I just did! Those FARGIN" BASTaDGES! (for those unfamiliar with the movie, that's from _Johnny Dangerously_ with Michael Keaton, before _Batman_). Here this goes again!

Paragraph one, line one: I would just like to say, I'm honored that you have all been impressed beyond words by the greatness of my writing. I will express appropriate humble disclaimers the moment somebody tries to tell me otherwise but at this moment, with ffn be the bastidges they are, I feel like being outrageously over the top in assuming my own greatness because the likelihood you'll actually read it are exceedingly slim and utterly unimportant because there's no way for you to be put off by it if you aren't reading, and if you are and this doesn't wind up deleted because of some stupid glitch in the computer system I have no need to worry because you're too lazy to review or pm me to tell me that. I've got your number and they're all ten ratings of my literative talent... Glad you agree.

Part 7 chapter 2 is coming along slowly the way some chapters do, especially after indicators as to how easy they should be to write have been given. Despite this I have whipped its sorry ass into shape and the slow battle to getting it on paper is about half through, though by the time it gets typed up all this effort may be wasted as I'm likely to change about half of it without significantly changing the plotline thereby not really affecting any of the surrounding chapters. Thus it is highly unlikely that this shortest of parts will take longer to write than part 6 will to post. That means, break not likely needed.

Speaking of chapters, because there really is hardly anything else to speak of in an author's note where the author has no real life just some deranged hopd to go back to college for a masters degree in chemistry at some out of state school just to get away from the family she's seen too much of in the last year and a half and becuase she is down right pleased with herself for coming up with such a seemingly original take on a character most people portray as a slut, bitch, money hound, or some other adulte female negative stereotype. This is not how Rumiko TAkahashi protrays this character so I likewise did not use any of these ready made cookie cutter images. She is not knowingly malicious or sadistic. She is defensive, beligerent, and mischievous with no real negative intent with a slight twist based on her actual age rather than the apparent age that often leads to depiction as the aforementioned images of a powerful females not on the right side of the plot divide in most stories. Rumiko takahashi often used image to confuse the reality of her created universe as have I with more than one character. Remember Data, 60 year old that look like a child. Even Aki's age surprises the youkai who learn of it. Appearances are deceiving.

Switching gears, because using a mechanical metaphor in order to introduce a subject dealing with winter weather amd cars just seems appropriate, I have over come my battle with the road. On the way home a few days ago Winter did it's worst with its blowing snow and black ice, white outs and freezing rain. Winter won the battle against 10 other cars, their poor stalled carcasses lying along side the highway I use to get home. But I, I got to taunt winter back. _IT'S NOT ME!!!_ I may have averaged 15 mph two thirds of the way home, but all four of my wheels stayed on the pavement in the lane of my choice. I WIN!!

And now, read on, reader, read on...

**Through the Eyes of a Child**

Secrets. Kagura hated them. She hated the poison propagated by the keeping and the knowing of secrets, for in the short span of her life, very few secrets had ever proven pleasant or beneficial to her.

She hated secrets, or knowledge withheld from her for it only got her in trouble.

Sometimes, those secrets were things she should have been taught by her parent. Some things had to be taught or learned. You weren't born with the innate knowledge of fear or death, but you knew pain and anger. You didn't know there was good or bad until somebody showed you.

The first time Naraku sent Kagura out as his pawn, she had been barely a few days old in the reality of her existence. She knew some of what she could do; she even had a working vocabulary and a keen mind with certain innate and useful knowledge already keyed into it the moment she had awakened. She'd not needed to learn how to walk or speak or even use the fan that was so much a part of her.

But she had not known what death was. She had not known the existence of fear the moment he sent her out. Actually she hadn't even known the reality of her father's distrust until she had already embarked on the errand he sent her to fulfill.

When she had essentially massacred the greedy members of the wolf tribe she had not known what it was she had really done. All it seemed like to her was that they had stopped moving and then they would move under the control of her fan like dolls. It was then that she had assumed the word death was applied to toys when the controlling power over them ceased. After all, death was just a word to her, barely even that.

And then Inuyasha and his friends had come upon her just as she was getting a true handle on how to play with her new dolls. Kagura reacted like any young child that had never been taught how to share. She believed they had come to take from her control of her new toys the way she had usurped control from the last person that had played with them. They were too new to her for her to allow that to happen without a bit of anger at the injustice of it.

So in the form of a tantrum, she fought with them, wondering if maybe they too were toys. In the course of her tantrum, she inadvertently covered the most aggressive one in the fluid leaking from her dolls. Naraku called her off and then another Ookami appeared. She'd wanted to jump right in and take that doll too, but again her father held her back. She was angry with him, until she realized this new wolf was angry over the others that lay all over when her concentration had broken and she dropped them.

How could a toy be angry? When she'd played with the wolves, none had shown expressions of anger despite her upset. Why would this new one do so?

Naraku had told her to wait and let the obnoxious intruders and the Ookami fight until one died, then she was to cut off the head of the other with her cutting wind. She didn't understand why he would want her to destroy a perfectly good doll, whichever one it proved to be.

Then came the time for her to intercede and she witnessed expressions of fear and loathing, of her. Then those strangers, taught her to fear. The silver hanyou had turned the winds against her, her own element turned upon her.

She'd learn caution and fear, but most of all, she learned to distrust Naraku. The one who had sent her into a battle that served only him a handful of days after her realization into being. The one who had hurt her when she ran away in fear to the only person she was familiar with. The one who denied her comfort and refuge from the big scary world she'd been thrust into on the wrong side of a war she had no business participating in.

But she still had no true concept of death, only that it caused anger in others.

Then Naraku had sent her back out into the big world to harass a priestess. An order Kagura distrusted for the man who made it. An order she rebelled against because she now believed following his orders is what had made the wind turn against her. After all, the wind generally didn't conform to anyone's strictures. An order she went about the motions of following even while trying to figure out ways around it.

That's when she had met Aki. Aki who conformed to nothing Kagura had known at the time. Aki who modified even the basic structures of socially acceptable farewells. And Kagura had found her answer.

She would follow his orders, he would harm her if she didn't, but she would do so without bothering to see if her actions bore fruit. She would do so but not in the way Naraku had intended.

Kagura started small, needing to build up her nerve over time and her first act of belligerence had come upon finding the dead miko she was to confront. Naraku had said to Confront Kikyou, but he hadn't specified about what. Oh sure, Kagura knew he wanted her to impolitely ask the miko about the Shikon shards and to join things on his side, but he _hadn't actually_ said that. So was it her fault if she willfully misinterpreted his original intent. He hadn't made her a mind reader after all. And she was still less than fourteen days old.

Kagura came upon the dead miko and the ghost, Fred, and was presented with the true image of what death actually was for the first time. Death was when people's bodies had been so hurt that they were forced to leave them behind. The dead were still people, and their bodies still held their faces even if they were empty. No wonder the Ookami had been so upset. The wind user had confronted them in the middle of their argument, about their behavior.

Kagura learned a lot that day, and no one had actually been hurt, at least not until Naraku found her returning without either miko or message in tow. He'd afterwards tortured her until she'd revealed the existence of Aki to him. He'd seemed quite interested in the presence of a humanoid youkai capable of flight. The shape indicated power and strength; the flight indicated a certain unique agility and vision strength. Kagura hadn't realized it at the time, but this was not a good thing.

Then Naraku had forced her to take Kanna out for her first run on Inuyasha and company. He'd ordered her to use her Dance of the Dead once again to fight them. Only this time Kanna was to remove their souls first so Kagura didn't have to kill the people she controlled.

Kagura still hadn't liked it, but she followed orders to keep from getting her sister in trouble.

Kagura was the elder by birth, but Kanna was the elder by inception. Naraku had thought of her first, he had taken more time with her. Kanna might not have the same problems with him that Kagura did, but Kanna was still her sister and Kagura would let her choose how she would view Naraku. Kagura's trouble would not be spilled over unless Kanna wanted it.

But in the course of watching Kanna through the whole plot Naraku had formed for them to work through, Kagura felt disgust for him growing with every second. Kanna would never be able to make her own choices because Kanna couldn't feel enough to form an opinion. The bastard had birthed her crippled so badly she would be wholly dependent on whoever was her master.

Kagura's anger for him grew.

After Kanna had expelled all the souls from her mirror against orders, Naraku had ordered them to return via his puppet sent to monitor them.

That's when Kanna met Aki. Much like Kagura had met her before, Aki sort of fell into their laps. Their paths crossed unexpectedly and suddenly she was there.

Aki had greeted Kagura with her usual "Windy" and the wind user had objected as like the time before. Then Aki had turned to Kanna who had been silent through the whole exchange. Aki's expression had changed then with a sad shake of her head. It was then that Kagura learned just what Naraku had done to her sister for Aki had seen it and understood it's meaning.

Naraku had left the ties to Kanna's soul so tenuous and weak her personality couldn't have formed properly if she lived a hundred years. Kagura hadn't understood the entire situation, but she'd known enough to be downright pissed.

Aki had smiled at her and produced a glowing ball in her hand. She'd shoved it into the small girls chest and Kanna had taken the first deep breath to lift her chest so dramatically since the gasping that had brought her fully to life. Kanna had blinked at her in confusion and Aki had grinned before jumping off the feather with a bright wish of freedom for their future.

Aki had essentially saved Kagura and her sister from the traps Naraku had built for them at birth. Aki had taught them good from evil. And Aki had taught Kagura that even when your life is held in the hands of another, there are still little ways to thwart them without getting punished.

After all, if he really thought her incompetent he couldn't exactly expect great things of her.

Sadly, secrets were just as noxious to keep as to have kept from you.

Kagura had learned this early too.

Naraku's bouts of temporary insanity had always been marked by violence and a certain kind of lust. A lust for the young flesh of the wolf tribes. Kagura hadn't always known this, but when she had unknowingly tripped into his private blood bath once, she couldn't have burned the knowledge from her brain if she wanted to.

There was no way to remove the sight of all those dismembered and bloodied bodies. There was no way to block out the sound of the child's cries of pain and mortality under the evil bastard's assault. Even if she had taken her wild winds to the desert to sand blast the skin from her bones; she doubted she would ever feel clean again. He had made her feel this way. And he had made her keep the secret upon threat of playing the part of the child.

Every time after that she'd had to remain silent about it in the presence of others. When trapped in the home of the mole youkai up north, the silence had been excruciating with the wolves all around her. She hadn't wanted to touch them afraid her presence would mark them for the hunt next time Naraku let the madness out.

But Aki had told her to dry them and Kagura had done it, trusting in the goodness of the one to combat the evil in the other and nothing had happened. In the end only Aki had fought and only Aki had been at risk.

Since then, Naraku had focused on finding the partial youkai's weaknesses, determined either to absorb her or possess her. Both possibilities turned Kagura's stomach but she hadn't feared he would prevail. Aki was strong and good and the detachment was certain the dark hanyou could never touch her.

That is, until the last time Naraku let his madness run free. Or rather, the way he had acted upon his return.

Unlike the other times Naraku returned from his forays into his personal mania where the bastard had returned oozing sadistic satisfaction, Naraku had seemed vaguely apprehensive and visibly shaken for several days. Days in which his usual plots went on neglected of his constant attention. Not once in those days did Naraku demand Kanna show him a single series of events or the whereabouts of his favorite groups to manipulate and torment. He didn't' race ahead of them to plant false information or send a fake emergency for them to fix. He ignored it all as he sat and pondered something that had him fearful and despairing.

Then Naraku seemed to think of something, a solution that made a determined evil glint in his eye sparkle menacingly. It shone with malignant knowledge Kagura was certain she didn't want to know. Naraku could keep it to himself!

But she knew he wouldn't. She also knew without glancing to Kohaku and Kanna that they knew it too. And just like them she knew whatever it was he was plotting now would be highly unpleasant for each of them and for the people Kagura had come to admire. But they kept their own council as to what it could be making the hanyou act so odd. His ears were far too omnipresent in the direct vicinity of his plots.

Truly they'd had no clue what had set they're manipulative parent off, not until he'd already sent them out with another of his puppets to draw out the groups he wanted to the spot he had decided upon for a battle that was hardly more than the medium to infect them with his chosen viral information. He'd wanted to plant the seeds of torment so he could sit back and watch them grow. It was one of his favorite pastimes after all, nothing new to any of his unwilling pawns.

Except this time the news was about Aki. This time the fear it birthed affected nearly every combatant present. Naraku had declared, via his puppet, that he had participated in an altercation with the greatly admired Aki. An altercation, he continued to relate, she had not fared particularly well in.

Most of the movement on the field of battle ceased at this imparted revelation. Ally and foe stood stunned in horror at the very possibility of this being true.

And Naraku had relished every minute of it; she knew he had. In the moment when most of his opponents were too shocked to react the evil hanyou had made move to take out the most powerful of his enemies.

Sesshoumaru's brain had stopped fully as if something had been thrown into the clockwork of his very being and forced the gears to a stop. He couldn't comprehend what had been said to him, what his ears rang with. He supposed in some extremely distant part of his mind that he was simply acting in self-defense. For If Aki had truly been slain then he would truly break if the message ever made it inside. He couldn't move or breathe or think.

Naraku nearly succeeded in taking the taiyoukai's head before Inuyasha cut him off. Inuyasha had remained unaffected by the news. It wasn't in him to believe words to the point where action stalled in him. Too many times when he'd been young had others sought to hurt him or destroy him with words. He'd learned early that if you kept moving the sting wasn't as sharp, and the middle of a battle wasn't the place to be finding truth, especially from Naraku.

Kagura was too stunned to make out what words the silver hanyou used to galvanize Sesshoumaru into motion again, but she knew when Naraku decided to disengage from the fight. The moment he was gone, she and the others of his leashed pets quickly withdrew as well. Kagura's head still ringing with the fear of just what had happened to Aki?

After that, Naraku's demands upon Kanna were incessant. He wanted to watch the seeds of his plan taking root. He wanted to see it bloom as each effort made by Inuyasha's group to find word of Aki failed. He wanted to see the growing despair etching itself onto Sesshoumaru's stoic visage as each dead end revealed no news of Aki.

Aki was nowhere to be found. No one had seen her recently. No one complained of an obnoxious ghost that couldn't keep his mouth shut. No rumors of an oddly dressed female youkai with a constant smile and gentle humor. No place they searched produced any evidence of her recent occupation or passage.

Aki was seemingly gone and Naraku's glee couldn't be bound. With his spirits so delightedly agitated, the hanyou began to plot for his next big move. He had decided to up the ante now that his enemy was so crippled. His demands on Kanna lessened greatly as the despair on the screen grew boring. He was done with watching, now he would reap the fruits of his malicious sowing.

It was then that Kanna and Kohaku felt the tug on their piece of Aki's soul and without question they moved to answer it and Kagura tagged along apprehensive of what was to be found. Perhaps their fears would be realized and they would find Aki beyond the reach of the mortal realm. Perhaps the tugging on Aki's soul meant it was trying to heal itself before it passed on and prepared for a new life. There was only one way to know and that was to find out for themselves.

So they went knowing if Naraku found them gone he would be furious, but also knowing it was unlikely he would notice their absence in the midst of his planning. Kagura followed the two who could feel the tug and swallowed her stomach when they passed into the wolf territories. She'd tried to avoid this place ever since the day she'd seen Naraku in his madness. It was rather difficult considering it covered about half the islands.

When they saw Aki, she didn't look like herself.

Aki was resting against a tree with her eyes closed, dressed in furs common of the wolf packs. She was pale and it was clear that some of the softest furs were actually being used as bandages. It was clear Aki had been on the wrong end of a brutal fight. Her breathing was uneasy and her throat worked haltingly as though afraid to move, but afraid not to move also.

She was sweating though the day was not unseasonably warm for early spring and her hair had been cut short so that it floated wildly on the wind. It was clear she had exerted much effort to get here though from whence she came was unclear. Kagura drew to a stop next to Kanna some feet away, uneasy with the situation somehow; despite the draw they felt towards her.

Kohaku kept moving forward, unable to feel their disquiet due to his technically non-living state. The only thing keeping him alive was the bit of soul Aki gave him to fool Naraku into thinking he still had the shard embedded in his back. Aki had set free his memory and taught him to forgive himself, for Aki believed no one was unsalvageable except by choice. And he had never actually chosen to hurt his family, Naraku had chosen for him.

He reached out to touch her, in need of the contact for the comfort it gave him and Aki jolted away before his hand could settle on her arm.

Kohaku stared at his hand before glancing back to the two standing behind him. He was incapable of strong emotions and the strong facial expressions that went with them, but if he'd been able, the alarm he'd be showing right then would've been louder than words.

Kagura's leaping heart plummeted when Aki's eyes had flashed open and red as she jumped away from Kohaku's touch. Aki had never done that before. Whoever had hurt her, had obviously left a lasting impression.

Aki closed her eyes and shivered before reaching out and touching Kohaku's hand. The boy had issues and her refusing to let him touch her would not help him. He just startled her that's all, she told herself with a mental nod. She'd called them here for a reason, and it was not to hurt them.

"Naraku is planning something," Aki began and Kagura all but winced at the sound of her voice. It was all too apparent Aki had not spoken in far too long. "When will it come to fruition?" Her voice, though rough with disuse, was even in tone and calm despite the anger obviously churning her youki around her. Oh Aki was pissed all right, but she would save it for the deserving.

"Naraku plans to complete the shards through a final battle where he intends to eliminate all that oppose him before the complete moon," Kanna surprisingly answered.

Aki turned her swimming green eyes to the white child. "So quiet, yet so well informed," she mumbled to herself. "Will you show me where this will take place?"

Kanna adjusted her mirror and light flashed across it revealing the field where the end of this war would play out.

"How do I get there from here?" Aki muttered quietly.

Kanna adjusted the mirror again and scenery flashed by as it showed the path from where they stood to where Naraku's supposed victory would occur.

"Thank you, Kanna," Aki stood up and patted the child on the head. "When the time comes, stay away from the monster and try to keep the others back. He'll get his." Aki's eyes flashed red again and Kagura gasped.

"Did Naraku-" the wind user began in shocked horror.

Aki's eyes flashed to red again before she controlled it. "He. Will. Get. His. Kagura," Aki growled low and deep in her damaged body. "But for now," Aki looked beyond the screen of trees distantly before turning sharply to Kanna. "You'll not be needing this any longer." Aki splayed her fingers across the smooth face of the glass and pushed it into Kanna's chest. The child struggled for a moment as Aki placed her other arm around her back to hold her in place. The mirror fought the transition just as much as the child did in fear, but neither won as Aki had her way. The mirror was forever gone, a part of Kanna as it should have been from the start.

The piece of Aki's soul floated out of Kanna's body to reunite with the rest of itself in Aki. "Naraku made you so the ties could never be strong between body and soul by forcing the soul into another container you had to keep with you to survive. Should the mirror have broken, you would have died. But as long as the mirror existed," Aki brushed Kanna's hair to the side, "Your soul could never come home to where it belonged."

"Aki you're gone! I can't feel you!" Kanna gasped in fear bordering on terror.

"You feel me just fine," Aki tapped her nose.

Kanna latched onto Aki's hand, hysteria beginning to grip her for the very first time in her life. "I'm empty."

Aki sighed, and kneeled back down beside the child. "I will give you a bit more time, but realize you can not hold it for ever. The body was only meant to contain one soul, Kanna, no more." And the little glow-y ball sailed back into the quaking child for her to hold a while longer.

Kanna slowly released her grip on Aki and Kagura stepped forward to offer her hand.

"Will you take mine as well?" Kohaku asked. He was unable to express his fears, but he knew Aki could see them anyway. He had a few things left he wanted to see done.

Aki shook her head and turned to leave them. Her nursemaids were bound to come looking for her and she wasn't up to saving Naraku's detachments from the enemies he had created. If only people could resist being blind in their prejudices and see what was really there. Just a bunch of scared children who had drawn the short end of the stick, the lots had been drawn against them and only Aki seemed to care.


	4. PAnic At the Disco

Woo-hoo! another week is done! Hurray. I can now right these rants you guys all love so much.. or at least you would if you actually read them.

Did you know that this fic just celebrated it's 5th birthday? And I don't mean 5th year of being posted either, it's obvious that's not the case. I mean this is now the 5th year I've been writing this one piece... and it's almost done.

Chapter 2 of part 7 is finished. And it was completely changed from the handwritten copy to the typed up version just like I knew it would be. couldn't be helped, inspiration struck and I knew what had to happen in which chapter. It should make things a bit easier too. i'm even toying with putting a lemon in... or just writing it and sending it to the people who ask for it nicely. This is like the only thing I'll actually ask my reader's oppinion for, and in the end I'll still wind up doing what ever the hell I want because nobody will express an oppinion about it just like the last few times I've asked. Lemon or no lemon, we shall see.

Work has been going pretty well I suppose, I mean despite being verbally coached by my manager. I guess a few of the other people I work with have been complaining about me being snippy with them. I suspect these are the same people with a generally bad attitude and a decidedly lacking work ethic. But, because they are unable to let half the things go that I have been, I'm the one in a little bit of trouble. Oh well.

But you don't care about that! You just want to read the next chapter, so get to it!

**Panic at the Disco**

Trust was never something given without limits; therefore it wasn't nearly as rare an emotion as some might think. One might trust a friend to always be entertaining or insightful and so always invite them to parties but never to a courtroom where all was serious and had to stay that way. Or one could trust an enemy to always attempt to thwart any scheme or plan in motion, but never would an enemy be trusted to offer comfort over the left over feelings of a bad day.

And trust was never self-sufficient; it needed to be supported with careful nurturing doses and consistency of behavior. Thus Kagome could always trust Inuyasha to protect her and demand his ramen, as this had been his consistent behavior almost since she met him. She could trust the dog boy to never believe Naraku's depiction of her over the real thing because he had already proven so on more than one occasion. But her trust was limited in that she did not trust in Inuyasha's faithfulness and devotion when it came down to a decision between herself and Kikyou. This was also because of a consistent behavioral pattern of her dear friend's, so it could be said that Kagome could trust in Inuyasha's indecisiveness between herself and Kikyou despite how she might hope different.

For hope is not the same as trust. And neither can be held onto without some evidence of it being reasonable during long absences of the person whom that trust and hope concerns.

Such it was for Sesshoumaru.

When Naraku alluded that he may have fought with Aki personally, Sesshoumaru began to worry. Naraku was the fiercest, most devious opponent of Sesshoumaru's current experience. Aki fought fairly and with constant restraint, refusing to snuff the life out of anyone who was truly alive. Naraku's matchstick men were one thing; Aki had proven capable of reasoning herself around thinking of them as being truly alive; the Hanyou was entirely different.

Naraku, despite his nebulous origins was quite distinctly capable of thinking for himself. He was able to pursue things without being driven by instinct or necessity. Because of his very nature, Aki had managed to declare that Naraku's less developed unsouled creations were more like detachable parts of him. They weren't even as alive as animals were and therefore, destroying them wasn't really killing them. It was more like injuring the hanyou from whom they originated.

But the originator was definitely too alive for Aki to willingly destroy, even at the risk of losing her own life. Sesshoumaru knew this. So his alarm was perfectly reasonable.

Then Naraku had lead on to indicate that Aki had been on death's doorstep when he had left her and Sesshoumaru's whole world froze up.

True Aki had promised to never die easy long before he had ever met her, but easy was an ambiguous word. Something that others might define as difficult was terribly easy for someone else. Easy was relative, like so many other things in life and Sesshoumaru had always known that.

He'd refused to think on it too closely, knowing he'd never be able to let her out of his sight otherwise. Aki had survived much, he always consoled himself, surely she could survive a bit longer without him. He comforted himself this way, certain that he had no choice in the matter anyway. Aki would've found ways to leave him behind no matter what. Aki was simply that bright and, regardless of how intelligent he felt himself to be, she had the wealth of five hundred more years of scientific development and thought at her disposal.

Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru highly doubted the hanyou could be defeated in a fight simply based on advanced science. This doubt, supported by his insecurities over Aki's ambiguous vow, and the evil hanyou's words all lead to the poison that held him captive in the middle of deadly combat.

It shouldn't have been possible, his father had trained him early to keep his emotions out of battle. The barrier between strategy, martial skill and the heart that drove them all was practically never taken down. The bastard's revelations imparted upon the field of contention shouldn't have been able to access the side of him he kept locked apart.

But it had, because Aki was the key. Naraku had found a way to use Aki against him.

Sesshoumaru had shamefully needed Inuyasha to save him. The worthless whelp he had purposely ignored and disdained was the one to spur him back into motion. And all he'd had to say was that without proof, Naraku had really only thrown confetti in the wind. Hearsay was all worth less than the air they breathed, readily available to even the lowest scum of the earth and just as likely to be foul as sweet in its smell.

Aki was strong and until they actually witnessed her end, it didn't happen.

By the time the cure for Naraku's assertions sank in, the vile conglomeration of minor youkai had retreated and there was no need for Sesshoumaru to act in his own defense.

But that didn't stop him from creating a plan of action. The group convened on the battlefield to decide how to go about establishing the honesty or falsehood of Naraku's words. Ultimately it was decided that they would search out the female of the hour to reassure themselves of her viability in the real world. It was possible Naraku hadn't even seen Aki to have fought with her, but Sesshoumaru wasn't going to hold his breath.

Naraku had been actively pursuing Aki for as long as he'd known her, and when he wasn't pursuing her he was doing things that eventually drew her out anyway because she felt the need to play someone's protector. Granted, most often it was his false creations that did the legwork but it wasn't unheard of for the hanyou to go out personally. It was highly likely Naraku had met Aki in combat recently.

And sadly it was also possible he _had_ done her a great deal of harm. Too possible in Sesshoumaru's mind, but that was probably due to current circumstances.

So, as Inuyasha suggested, the search for Aki became the quest and shard/Naraku hunting became wholly secondary. It wasn't even discussed before the consensus was reached. Nobody even thought to protest it. Aki was more important for whatever reason.

The monk suggested Kagome go search the other side of the well first. Aki seemed to be able to do everything much faster there and the friends she met would be able to continue the search without her if the need arose after checking Aki's habitual haunts. Kagome could talk to the people that tried to watch over Aki and find out when she had last been there and when she was next expected.

And while she did that the rest of the group planned to talk to Hanako and Kaede.

Sesshoumaru went along, despite his great dislike of the over-amorous, delusional rabbit youkai and despite the fact that he personally wouldn't be talking to the old miko. He just wanted to be there if they found that Aki was fine and on the other side of the well.

When Kagome came back with a firm negative, Sesshoumaru departed on his own. There were places he could get to quicker than they could and if they wanted to try all the places Aki was familiar with and might return to as quickly as possible it was best for him to travel to the most distant ones as on his own.

With each new dead end, Sesshoumaru pressed himself harder to pour on more speed. He was exhausting himself more and more quickly, increasing the amount of time he was forced to sleep.

Youkai didn't generally need as much sleep as some creatures did, and seldom did they dream. Sesshoumaru had grown to associate dreams with Aki. Another reason he missed her when she was gone, having become accustomed to dreaming.

When demons did dream, it was seldom pleasant. Sesshoumaru had thankfully been without nightmares since meeting Aki. His life, while not easy since choosing her, had constantly been full of a hope for the future that had buffered him against such negative visions as nightmares. With the rise of this monumental doubt by the words of the demented hanyou, Sesshoumaru was forced to relive the warning he'd experienced in Aki's apartment.

And these visions didn't come to him only in his sleep. His meditations to calm his straining nerves provided him with ample reminders of why he was so tense in the first place, for when he cleared his mind of all else there remained memories of the many times Aki had brushed upon the attention of death only to be pulled back at the last possible moment. Often it was pure luck she survived at all.

Such as the time she had been trapped in her own barrier. If those entities, gods, whatever, had not found and called upon her at that moment, Aki would've have been incinerated in the phoenix's fire. Or the time Naraku's second beast had lunged at Aki while she was distracted by her curse-killed opponent. If Kikyou hadn't arrived at the last possible second, His intended could have been lunch. Even the time when Naraku's painted detachment had caused Aki to fall out the window of his family estate, she had been lucky there had been a heavy winter the year before. It had taken out the tree that would've prevented her from pulling up the amount she had managed, something he was sure would've been worse than the injuries she'd suffered _because_ she'd avoided contact with the nightmare creation.

It shook him how much Aki's continued survival was based on luck for he knew that no person's luck could hold out forever. In the end reality would catch up, he just hoped it hadn't already done so in the shape of Naraku. He wanted to believe her luck still held, if only until he found her.

After he found her, there was no way he was letting her loose again. Promise or no promise, agreement or not, Sesshoumaru was going to press the issue. He never wanted to have this terror visited on him again. There was no way he would willingly let her out of his sight with out at least one marking on her. And even then he was liable to be adamant about keeping her close.

He never desired for an enemy to ever have the chance at Aki like Naraku seemed to have had. The bastard wasn't worthy to lay hands on her.

And Aki didn't deserve to suffer through the experience. She was good, kind. She was young, and he suspected once she got past her curse issues, she would be full of life and probably love too. That shouldn't be tainted by the likes of the cunning thief or anyone else…anyone but him, as Sesshoumaru was coming to believe that in a lot of ways Aki was better than him. If he found that Naraku truly had caused Aki serious harm, then Sesshoumaru might begin to question if _he_ was worthy of her.

There were a lot of places that Sesshoumaru, as a powerful youkai, couldn't go. Human villages that were still in one piece would attack him on sight or run in fear, neither instance would aid him in finding if Aki had passed through. Likewise he couldn't go into some of the youkai communities for the same reason, though they might have been more forth coming and calm about his approach and demands for information. Thus it was up to Inuyasha and his team to inquire after Aki on some of the common routes she might have traveled and it was up to Sesshoumaru to travel to all the outlier regions and places that weren't currently inhabited to check for her occupancy.

Normally Sesshoumaru wouldn't mind, but it kind of sucked to be the one doing this, and alone. Each place held memories of Aki in trouble she eventually overcame, most often without his help. Nearly all the areas contained some memory he would cherish if he were the memory cherishing kind.

Instead most of the images he saw there teased him of an intimacy he no longer had and, if Naraku's words failed to prove false, would never regain. Over and over again he was faced with the reality that he might never see Aki alive again. He might never touch her, talk with her, or reclaim her as his mate. Those seemingly silly things he'd said to Mouse on the other side of the well when she'd pressed him for his desires and wants may never come to pass. He was beginning to realize, he might never again find Aki in a part of his life.

First he'd been in a strong well of denial, he didn't want to believe that Aki could fall to Naraku. He didn't want to believe she had already done so when he was still expecting her to break free of her curse and make good on her promise to him.

But the words that kept echoing in his head negated what he desired to believe. The many times Fred had indicated a fragility in Aki that Sesshoumaru was unfamiliar with began to take on new meaning. The hints that Mouse had thrown at him about Aki's likelihood to fall even without the interference of an enemy. The gnawing images of Aki's curse lit up on a screen working away on the last ties to life that she still had.

Eventually denial had given way to the realization of high probability as to Naraku's honesty in this case. Realization led to anger, rage really, at the vile hanyou that would even think to end Aki's life. To him her life was sacred and held in trust until she could go back to actually living it instead of just surviving. That someone would seek to interfere in that and invite death to the party was unacceptable and definitely merited severe punishment.

Sesshoumaru fed his anger, his rage. He let it burn inside him, allowing it to grow into a nearly uncontrollable inferno to be directed only at Naraku upon the next occasion where the imbecile sought to show his face. There were reasons most chose not to anger the lord of the western lands; it was time the hanyou found out.

Sesshoumaru abandoned his search for Aki to find his half brother's group, seeking to keep the last ember of hope alive with a found Aki on their part. Upon meeting them, the last cherished hope completely died as merely the look on their faces indicated they'd had the same hope of him.

The reins on his rage began to snap as his control began to loosen.

Then Naraku made his reappearance.

"Kukuku," the well-armored abomination chuckled sadistically. "Didn't find her then?" the vile bastards smirk was firmly in place. "Don't look upset. I shall send you to her if you wish to see her so badly."

Naraku's eyes danced with malicious delight at their expense. It was a rare treat when he could watch his enemies writhe in such agony from such a close distance. With a mildly self-deprecating laugh, he noted that the proper mood had been set for this last battle he intended to start. They were hurt and despairing and he'd bet the youkai lord would just stand there and let him kill him the way he had before. After all, that had only been the only unsubstantiated idea that Aki might be dead, now they had a nearly firm belief.

Sesshoumaru's eyes began to swim in the red, before him stood the bastard that had possibly taken the life of his Aki. If not for the evil hanyou, his doubts would never have grown so horribly. Without Naraku, there wouldn't have been a need for half of them. For without Naraku, there wouldn't have been as large a threat to Aki as there had been.

Without Naraku there wouldn't have been a beast and a second to attempt to suck the soul from Aki. Without Naraku, there wouldn't have been a painted detachment to pursue Aki across the land and in her nightmares. Without Naraku, Aki quite possibly wouldn't have challenged the bastard to a contest. Maybe she would have challenged him instead, and he knew how that would have wound up. At least he'd like to think he knew.

Almost from the beginning Sesshoumaru had wanted Aki on an instinctual level. Even when she was human he had been just as eager to press into her skin as he was on every occasion since her youkai blood had been revealed. Perhaps if there had been no Naraku, Sesshoumaru could have found her to mate sooner, established more groundwork for him to draw from after the rotten gods dissolved the contract. Maybe with more time he could've worked in the part about what mating contracts were in detail so the gods couldn't have revoked it in the first place.

Yeah, blame the disgusting spider for that too.

If not for Naraku, Rin wouldn't have been stolen away from him the one time. If not for Naraku, the damn Saimyoushi wouldn't be buzzing around and annoying him all the time. If not for Naraku Aki wouldn't have been forced to encase the souls of a large group of children in a barrier that later got her in trouble. If not for Naraku, the island territories wouldn't be in upheaval. If not for Naraku, he wouldn't distrust the Cliffside windows on his ancestral home.

And with each new item added to the list, Sesshoumaru's rage grew exponentially. His reddened eyes darkened even further with the emotion and he continued to pour on the fuel.

A memory of Aki's playful bantering cut short by the threat of Naraku's imminent return. An amusing argument next to a stream interrupted by Naraku's flower-bedecked puppet. A flash of Aki being nearly starved to death at the devious hanyou's instigation. Aki driven to physical exhaustion in front of the heavy pursuance of the panted nightmare maker's barely bridled lust and sadism.

Every time Sesshoumaru had encountered Aki after some time apart, she had been driven to one extreme or another by the bastard's machinations. Often the taiyoukai found her just in time to offer her the shelter and comfort needed for her to rest without worry of attack. And the attack she worried was always from the same mastermind and his relentless greed for Aki's body, shards, and power. Things the hanyou had no right to, having never won the contest by the rules set up. Things Naraku had even less claim to after Sesshoumaru had taken them for himself.

Sesshoumaru didn't bother to police his thoughts in his rage Aki wasn't here to scold him about his possessive thoughts and soon to be behavior and very likely words before his anger reached a level of incoherence. That was also Naraku's fault too.

It was Naraku's fault he was breaking his promise to try and curb his possessive instinct. It was Naraku's fault Aki wasn't there to say something about it. It was the evil Hanyou's fault Aki wasn't there to growl in mild anger and disgust about it.

Sesshoumaru didn't bother to pay attention to the words being heatedly exchanged between his half brother's group and the vile bastard that hovered grinning at them all. It wouldn't have mattered what they said at this point. There was only him, his growing rage, and the enemy who would rip his future from him. The one who sought to take his mate from him with violence and deceit.

The fight hadn't yet escalated to the full contact blood sport it was leading to just yet. It was clear both parties were angling to drive the other move first. Under normal circumstances the first to move would tip his hand and quite often tip the scales of the fight in one direction or the other. It was the way of things, but not set in stone. The first to move gave up an advantage that both sides knew was desperately needed in this fight. Though Naraku probably wasn't thinking of it that way, the longer the initial move took to happen, the longer he had to torment his enemies with calm taunts and subtle jabs at wherever their insecurities lie. The fight itself would be boring for him, the evil hanyou was certain it would be short and he would win. With his plan to make this the last battle, he needed to draw the tormenting out because he didn't plan to let them live once battle was engaged.

Inuyasha's group sort of sensed it and hung back warily. Somehow they could tell Naraku had planned to meet them today and right here as if he'd known this was where they planned their rendezvous with Sesshoumaru to be, which meant Naraku had been constantly watching them again. A constancy that led the group to believe Naraku was verily certain Aki was no longer out there to be harassed or spied upon, drawn out and pursued. Soon it was no longer just Sesshoumaru's anger that was rising.

But it _was_ Sesshoumaru's rage that started the combat.

Sesshoumaru didn't care about who moved first. His raging mind was certain that no matter who moved first, he was personally going to do some major damage to Naraku in a swift first attack. The control of the taiyoukai's rage finally disintegrated past the point of no return and Sesshoumaru stepped forward as his face lengthened and his more beastly form leapt into being in the direction of his enemy, the annoyance turned murderer and soon to be dead opponent, Naraku.


	5. In View of Evil

TAADAA!!! Another chapter for your reading enjoyment. how'd you like that cliffie? Well guess what! I'm gonna do it again! I'm so evil. Not that it matters. You're all not reading it anymore so what does it matter?

Okay, so I'm not being fair. I know at least one person is reading it. she's reviewed at least 3 of the last four chapters... You rock! Oh and I've another reviewer slowly working her way through all the other parts of this story, so I'm pretty sure she'll be reading this eventually too. WONDERFUL!!

chapter 62 and the alternative chapter 62 are now complete. All I have left is the last chapter and I do believe chapter 63 will be a breeze to write. It's just an epilogue of sorts. A last little effort to expose the rest of the secrets I've been keeping from you. And I have been keeping them rather well. I totally surprised the hell out of one of my preview audience members. All those hints and subtle clues I made are going to come back and bite you in the rear because I like saving puzzle pieces to the very end.

In this chapter, I develop the perspective of a villain. he was actually amazingly easy to write, I was so surprised. I'm also surprised nobody has been complaining about the last three chapters. I'm leading up to something, obviously. the last time I did that I kept getting complaints from the people who usually review. Nothing this time around, huh. Then again, one of those two people seems to have stopped reading altogether...I wonder why.

In any case, keep reading dear reader, your efforts shall be rewarded. Just like all that hard work in Wal-mart last year. I'm getting my bonus on payday. We almost maxed it out for last year. Cnsidering this store has never managed to earn a bonus in it's previos three years of operation, that's really saying something.

A brief little spot light on Birthdays because I feels like it. My Birthday was last Friday! I am now a quarter of a century or seven, whichever way makes more sense to you. And since I'm busting out with my birthday I'll say happy birthday to one of my readers. Hers was the day after mine and up until recently she was probably my most consistent reviewer (not to mention the only reviewer that put her age up on her profile page). Happy birthday White Alchemist Taya! May you once again begin reading like you did before!

**In View of Evil**

Terror, despite its notoriety, is not as prolific as its fame might suggest. In fact, there are many creatures, sentient or otherwise, that will go through their entire lives without ever knowing the mind numbing, heart pounding panic that is terror.

True, every creature brought face-to-face with their natural enemy will feel a great deal of fear, but most will still be able to act or react as the case may be. It takes special circumstances to induce actual terror and the set up is different for each.

Perhaps if Onigumo had been one of that lucky collective of creatures, great and small, that had never and would never suffer the effects of terror he might have grown, in the natural way of things, to become a clever man who eventually married, had children, and died at the end of a long, normal, fulfilling life. He might have shared new ideas for crop storage or animal husbandry with his neighbors. Most likely, the most trouble he would cause his community would have come from the mischievous pranks of his progeny. In his old age others would have sought him out for advice and wisdom and would come to rest his weary bones in a perfectly respectable way.

Unfortunately for Onigumo's neighbors and his would-be wife and kids, he wasn't so lucky. Instead when he was around eight summers old a band of particularly vicious marauders swept through his village and wiped out nearly every resident from elders to babes.

Onigumo survived because of the mind-numbing terror that all but arrested his breathing, the mercy of the blackguard that found him and luck that the marauders hadn't decided to raze the village to the ground for the hell of it. Not that the boy actually thought he was lucky at the time.

But even then, it was possible for him to have had that normal peaceful life if only somebody had stepped up to take him in or help him survive.

But the people of the area had learned to distrust travelers on the road, wanderers of any age and look, so Onigumo was left to his own skills for survival. He had never been trained to hunt, his parents having been peaceful farmers with little to defend themselves with in the face of danger. The boy quickly learned farming required more than one set of hands and was backbreaking labor at the best of times. Besides, peaceful people were the easiest of prey and he was determined never to be in that situation again.

Instead, Onigumo quickly learned to steal to feed himself. Then he learned, after a hard winter season, that he would be better off stealing more than food. He took to stealing the wealth of others. In his way, he became a predator for predators are seldom preyed upon.

He soon came to associate safety and comfort with worldly goods and began to "collect" more than he needed. Greed was his common ally amongst other thieves that followed him and his way of life. The more wealth he amassed the more invincible he felt.

Until the fire…

When the fire started in retaliation for his thieving ways, he still had time to escape. He nearly did break free of the building before incurring any injury. Unfortunately it was then that his illicitly gained goods got in his way. He tripped over an ornate low table what was his latest treasure and bumped his head on a statue he'd stolen from a religious temple in weeks passed. He fell unconscious and awoke to the agony of the burning of his own flesh. He managed to escape the building only to fall from a ravine a slight ways away rendering him incapable of further decampment.

Thus the Shikon miko found him and nursed him. But even as badly burned and helpless as he was, Onigumo had not abandoned his greed, though it turned to different avenues. It was clear that security through wealth was an illusion that had nearly proven fatally false. Still it was the predator that ultimately avoided being prey, just obviously a different form of predator. One with true power instead of the power of wealth.

Onigumo lay there and pondered this new direction of thought for there was not much else he could do with his time. His day was interrupted only by the arrival of his healer and her young sister which sometimes lead to new thought paths towards a solution, for if he possessed a powerful miko, controlled her, then he would be powerful by proxy. He began to plot, uselessly, his conquest of the miko, the things he would do to bring her control under his hand, the punishments he would deal out if she defied him over much before he broke her of it.

Then he came to learn of Inuyasha and the Shikon no tama. He was enraged that his miko (at least in his semi-psychotic state) dared go against his rule of her. He was angered that she had not offered him the jewel if only to heal him of his despised, weakened body.

This was truly the last straw. Pain, anger and greed had built up inside of the carcass Onigumo was trapped in until his sanity snapped and he tempted the weak youkai that sniffed him and his evil heart out.

Out of this, was Naraku born. But for all that he kept the heart of Onigumo with him as the glue that made the conglomeration possible, Naraku was free of his petty angers and foolishness. Greed, however, is found in all creatures that desire to live and Naraku found that Onigumo's desire for power was his own.

The first order of business after his birth, taint and obtain the bauble of power closest to him, the Shikon no tama. This being his first endeavor, Naraku decided to try out all of his new abilities in the process. The shape shifting and lying came as easily as breathing, making the betrayal between Kikyou and Inuyasha all the more believable.

Unfortunately he failed in his ultimate goal, but he shrugged it off. There was more than one way to gain power and all the time in the world in which to go about it.

Naraku was clever, a gift of Onigumo, and manipulative to an extreme degree. Much as he loved to approach his pawns in person, he loved having others do it for him without realizing it.

Once he managed to talk a comfortably placed warlord into taking insult at the words of another, three territories away. Onigumo riled the lord up so much, he actually proceeded to march his army through the territories not involved in order to attack the lord that originated the supposed slight. The uninvolved territories, alarmed at an army trespassing through their lands sent out their own armies to "defend" against the invader. Ultimately the insulted warlord never made it to his destination and in the ensuing chaos Naraku took over the abandoned territory while no one was looking.

By the time he grew bored with tweaking the neighboring lords into attacking each other for no reason, he found the first Shikon no Kakera on the person of a youkai he'd intended to throw in the path of the warring lords to see what would happen. In the end he killed the youkai and studied the shard he had found.

He knew what it was of course; he'd held the entire thing once. And it wasn't hard to deduce that where there was a piece to a whole much larger than was held, there were likely to be more. After that he ignored his warring neighbors in favor of hunting for the pieces to this latest of intriguing puzzles.

IT was in this way he encountered Aki for the first time. Aki who desired nothing and was far detached from the greed inherent in the nature of nearly all living things. Naraku did not understand her, for greed was how he could handle and manipulate everyone around him, only she would not be manipulated either into giving him the shards or into fighting him seriously. He ignored her for a time to ponder the enigma she presented while amassing more of the Shikon no tama and tainting it as he went.

It was in this time that Onigumo's madness found its way to the surface. The more he collected the shards the more often the violence left over from Onigumo's long ago forgotten rage would surface and remove Naraku from power over his own body and mind.

The first time it happened, there wasn't a single person still living in the village he had been passing through. Every human being, man, woman and child had met a very violent end. What gave the evil hanyou pause was that the females all seemed to have suffered something far worse than death, or at least he hoped they suffered it before they died, or died of it. It disgusted him to think he was capable of wasting his seed in a corpse.

The second time this madness rose to take him again, only one person had died, a female from the wolf tribe that had been annoying him. When Naraku returned to himself she let out her last breath and his body ached from the fight she had put up. He resolved himself to enjoy his madness after that. Anything that punished those that opposed and annoyed him was fine with him.

Every time after that, he kept in mind the interval between these boughts of blinding madness and made a point to be near the ookami lands when one was likely to occur. His madness driven self never bothered to leave witnesses and Naraku relished in the mystery that had the wolves stirred up like a disrupted wasps nest.

It was his private plot on the side and he enjoyed it.

After he began to pursue Aki seriously either to gain her as a possession or to absorb her power into himself (he still was certain which he preferred) the intervals began to shorten as she foiled each of his attempts to capture or reduce her to the depression of spirit or mindlessness he would need to absorb her properly occasionally set him off prematurely.

It did not surprise him when he came to himself after his last episode to find Aki under him in tatters and barely breathing. It angered him a bit because he had not wanted her dead. Dead flesh was worthless to absorb and continual torment couldn't be fully appreciated by a person too dead to fully feel it. Kikyou was a prime example.

Naraku had been tormenting her since the moment he learned of her resurrection, but the miko never showed a sign of caring. Unlike Inuyasha, who was incredibly entertaining to torment.

But what was done couldn't be undone and Naraku knew it. Aki's death couldn't be helped and he resolved to give up whining over it the same way he had given up on obtaining the Shikon no tama around 50 years prior when it burned on the funeral pyre with Kikyou.

HE was perfectly fine with forgetting all about it…until he remembered about Aki's curse. In the process of subduing and abusing Aki a large amount of blood had been thrown around, a mixture of the victim and her attacker strewn about in red splashes worn by both. Therefore, in the chaos of attacking the interfering woman, it was highly probable that he had gotten a bit of her blood mixed into an open wound on his person.

Naraku's blood ran cold at the thought and he rushed to the nearest body of water to clean it all off. It wasn't until he had been fully immersed under the waterfall that he realized that diluting the blood and letting it run down his body like that was extremely liable to wash her blood directly into one of the deeper wounds she'd given him. He'd run to his current "home" after that.

For days he dwelled under the fear that his demise was at hand, explaining the delay as a result of the water mixing into the mix. But a delay wasn't infinite, so sat in fear and trepidation.

Until a thought occurred to him. It was possible that with the death of Aki went the existence of her curse and its power. This revelation was seized up on as fact, providing the required stimuli to bolster his mind and birth a new plot. This time he meant to finish off those who opposed him.

Naraku had grown bored with manipulating the same people all the time. They reacted the same way and he was reduced to using the same tried and true methods over and over. It was clear he needed a new pastime but he was a firm believer in finishing what you start and really did want to finish the Shikon. This last violent encounter with Aki just may have provided the means to end it all with as little fuss as possible. Of course he would prolong it a bit just to be contrary. This would be a special torment to savor.

Drawing on a past successful maneuver, Naraku called out all the foe he felt would be most affected by news of Aki's death, mainly the Inuyasha group and the taiyoukai that had been a thorn in his side since the moment Naraku had been so generous as to supply a means to holding Tessaiga. He'd toyed with them through his puppets and pawns so as to leave them unsuspecting of the real purpose behind this skirmish.

Oh and it had been sweet, the moment he delivered the lines. At a point where he'd had the upper hand on the youkai lord and his half-brother, Naraku had commented on their lacking skills. He'd then said that "if you had been so wise as to keep your females out of harms way perhaps you wouldn't be so neglect in maintaining and sharpening the skills of combat." Inuyasha had grown enraged because just previous to those words he'd left himself wide open to the evil hanyou's attack as he was distracted by Kagome's temporary distress.

He couldn't have planned it better himself. Just when Inuyasha let his anger push him to attack in Sesshoumaru's way, Naraku followed up with "For if Aki had been taken better care of, she wouldn't have been exposed to a fight with me. A fight she did not fair particularly well in, I'm afraid." He made sure to add the right amount of sarcastic, false sympathy. In some secret internal place Naraku might wish Aki had survived for him to use and abuse another day, perhaps when he wasn't drowned in his mania, but he wasn't going to dwell on it and he wasn't against using his own loss against his enemy.

When Sesshoumaru froze up like a marble statue, Naraku knew his purpose had been met, though he was surprised at such obvious and instant signs of it. He couldn't resist taking a swipe at the immobilized taiyoukai and would have succeeded in killing him if Inuyasha hadn't been so resilient to the words of Aki's demise.

He withdrew his faction shortly there after, his goal complete for the day. Now there was time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

And enjoy them he did. Watching Inuyasha's group grow increasingly irritated with each other under the pressures of their fear and failed efforts to find word of Aki in this world of the living was only surpassed in entertainment value by the desperation driven actions of the inu youkai that laid claim to her future.

One simply did not often see a youkai lord running around for seemingly no reason. And Sesshoumaru did not run to places a person might see a lord hurry towards with great haste. No, He went around to numerous abandoned dwellings of past human and youkai ownership. He talked to the remaining ghosts locked in a circle out side a shrine of massacred village. When he grew exhausted he meditated or suffered through his sleep.

Oh the youkai lord was fun to watch when he slept. It was easy to tell the inu youkai suffered from constant nightmares as his facial expression changed dramatically from moment to moment, horror now shifting to sorrow then shifting to a painful desperate sort of hope then back to despair and horror. Sesshoumaru visited his home in hopes that Aki may have gone there and Naraku wondered what the lord would think if he knew that his nemesis could see into his most private of refuges. He watched the western lord forgo sleep in his own bed to sleep in the outer room of his chambers and Naraku could only assume it was because Sesshoumaru had known Aki on those cushions and blankets.

Eventually, a certain uneasiness began to build in the evil amalgamation of youkai's blackened and newly regained heart that he masked as boredom. In truth Naraku worried that allowing his enemies time to adjust might add to their strength against him, though he would never admit it. If asked, he was merely bored-that is if he bothered to answer in the first place.

Plans to expedite the end of this waltz between the clichéd "good" and "evil" went into the works, though Naraku personally thought it was a battle between the "good" and the "stupid". After all, Naraku was "good" and Inuyasha and company were simply too stupid to live. If they were smart, they wouldn't waste their time wandering around and helping the weak, the prey that Naraku had long ago graduated from being.

It was time to end this.

Naraku planned out the confrontation he could foresee no possible end except with him as the victor. He figured once the two searching groups met up they would realize how futile it was to look for Aki in the first place and the depression this would place upon their spirits would serve only to heighten his advantage. Sesshoumaru would listlessly put up a token effort at defending himself as the reality of Aki's death rocked his world the way the mere idea of it had. Kagome's aim would be thrown off by the tears the over emotional human would shed, forcing Inuyasha to worry about her the more and distract him from fighting his real opponent. The taijiya would of course be distracted by her brother as had never failed in the past and the monk would constantly attempt to guard and soothe her to the detriment of his own defense.

Naraku didn't bother to even consider the rug rats that may or may not be involved. After all, it's not like any runty adolescent could do him any harm.

When it came right down to brass tax though, it appeared he'd slightly misjudged the taiyoukai.

Normally Naraku prided himself on the impact the fewest number of his words spoken could cause. He liked to think it required a certain mastery of language his opponents had clearly never gained. But despite his best efforts to pretend otherwise, he was nervous. And Inuyasha had the power to reduce anyone to the argumentative power of a four year old. That was before that power was compounded by the unified efforts of his companions.

He started out well enough. "Didn't find her then?" the words themselves innocent enough to only call for attention, but his tone was enough to convey the insult of his opinion of their capabilities in this matter without his having to express it in so many words. "Don't look so upset. I shall send you to her if you wish to see her so badly." The veiled threat… okay so it wasn't so subtle, unless a person was still operating under the assumption that Aki, the aforementioned 'she', was still alive.

"So you think you know where Aki is?" Kagome snorted. The possibility that Aki was dead couldn't be completely refuted. In fact, things were grimly leaning towards the direction that it could be fact, but the ninth grader just couldn't shake the feeling that Naraku was wrong somehow. "How can you be sure? It's not like you can spy on her with Kanna's mirror, and the bugs couldn't possibly keep up with her."

"Silly miko," Naraku chuckled darkly. "Perhaps you should pay more attention when your betters speak."

"You know," Kagome began dryly, "if there was somebody here that was actually better than me, your argument might hold merit."

"Yeah stupid," Inuyasha grinned. "The one person lower than everybody here shouldn't talk so big."

"This coming from the biggest runaway mouth on the planet," Naraku sneered, already degenerating to mudslinging to little purpose. "If you had half a brain you would realize that Aki is beyond your reach."

"So she's up a tree?" Inuyasha was purposely being obtuse.

"Up a ladder?" Kagome asked.

"Flying?" Miroku joined in with a moderately mischievous grin. The group's pent up frustrations were finding vent through words.

"He just said beyond our reach, not above us, so maybe Aki traveled over the sea," Sango suggested and Naraku ground his teeth.

"Maybe she went home," Kagome tapped a finger to her chin.

"Went for a swim?" Inuyasha wondered.

"Jumped ship?" Miroku's semi-suggestion shot into the air.

"Where would Aki have gotten a ship?" Inuyasha demanded of the monk. Miroku merely shrugged amicably, Aki was capable of many things.

"Aki is no longer on this plane of existence," Naraku hissed through his teeth, sounding very much like a teakettle about to boil.

"But we're not on a plane," Kagome declared calling upon her knowledge of the future machinery. "And even if Aki were on a plane it would eventually land." And we're back to the flying.

"Kagome, you're not making any sense," Sango touched the time traveler on the shoulder.

"Neither is Naraku," Inuyasha muttered. "Talking about different planes like it means something." Honestly, Inuyasha knew what Naraku was getting at but he refused to let the bastard get away with his stupid vagueness.

"I doubt you are remotely familiar with sense, Inuyasha," the dark hanyou grumbled. "The female is dead. She gave all she could give. Breathed her last breath. Gone the great permanent out of body experience." Naraku barely held back his growl of frustration with this conversation. They were the ones supposed to be getting angry and having a hard time, not him!

"And where is this alleged dead body of Aki?" Kagome demanded.

"Pssst," Inuyasha tugged on her hair. "What's 'alleged' mean?"

"It means something is unsupported with proof or evidence," Kagome whispered back. The dog boy nodded to himself, without a body as proof of Aki's death he wasn't ready to buy the devious spider's story either. Something just didn't add up right.

"Careful little miko," Naraku began again. "You might offend me and I just might have to show you what I did to render Aki UN living." His gaze carried a weight to it that no female creature ever born couldn't have understood as a very specific threat.

"You bastard!" Sango growled ferociously, giving most of the youkai they knew a run for their money.

"What is it? What's the matter Sango?" Inuyasha demanded. Sango rarely sounded as outraged as she did right this minute.

"It is an unspeakable offense!" Sango spat to the side, disgust curling in her stomach even as she moved to push Kagome behind her and away from the evil gaze of Naraku.

"If it were truly unspeakable Taijiya, how would you know what it is?" Naraku chuckled darkly. "Shall I tell him? The silly boy, should he know what I threaten his miko with?" the bastard mused aloud as Sango shuddered in revulsion. "I tasted of the treasured cup that was Aki's life. I drained it away amidst repeated invasion of her flesh." Now Inuyasha was growling, he wasn't so dense he couldn't pick up just which type of 'invasion' the amalgamation of youkai was implying.

"You sick bastard!" Inuyasha was losing control of his disgust and anger. The thought that Naraku had violated a female he viewed as his sister was bad enough, that he had violated her to the point of (at least) near death was disturbing. But the straw that broke the camel's back was that the dark hanyou leveled the threat to do the same to a female Inuyasha viewed as his, as soon as he figured out how to win her, mate. Naraku was going down…TODAY.

Sango was likewise just as pissed. That someone she knew, a fellow woman, and an extremely gentle and generous one at that, had been so touched by such filth was so revolting it couldn't be borne. And it wouldn't be if she had a chance to knock the Bastard down to the proper size.

Miroku was likewise upset though most likely not to such extremes. This was a war torn land and he was a holy figure (even if he was a semi-corrupt one at that.) He saw cases of violent rape often before joining with Inuyasha's group. The aftermath was never pretty. That such a thing had happened to Aki turned his stomach.

But before any one of them could act upon their strong feelings of outrage and disgust, Sesshoumaru leapt forward to strike at Naraku first. The magnificent beast leapt from the skin of the statuesque youkai lord and upon the shield generated by the hanyou to protect himself at all times.

Naraku had never suspected Sesshoumaru to make the first move, but it wasn't the end of his plans despite this miscalculation. Everything else was set. Kanna was set to reflect back Inuyasha's ultimate sword attacks. Kagura was in place powering the bodies of over a thousand corpses of his own choosing and Kohaku was near to add the required distracting element for the youkai exterminator.

Naraku watched as the taiyoukai pounded on the barrier repeatedly in his rage. It wouldn't hold under such an onslaught, he knew. But he wasn't worried. Naraku had more than one defense and the regenerative powers of the jewel. It was only a matter of time before they wore themselves out beyond redemption. Then this would all end and Naraku would stand the victor.


	6. Bonsai

Guess what!!! This is the chapter you all THINK you've been waiting for: the big fight scene! And now you're all wondering what the hell Bonsai has to do with all this. WEll, As you read, you'll find out like always because my awesome chapters are like that!

Oh, by the way, we no longer get Sesshoumaru's thought on the subject. He's incoherent anyway. And we only get a smidgen of Naraku's because he's much to busy to think through most of it. And I know you're all certain you're going to get Aki's... Well, you're not! Buahahaha!

Ahem, excuse me. Bit of sadistic glee caught in my throat... heheh. Where was I?

Oh yes, updating on last week's fanfic watch. Chapter 63 is now completed. What does this mean? It means, I hve no more fic to write. What does that mean for you? It means The next part of Chronicles, F_lying Nonsense_ is the last part you have to read. Oh and you really should read it. Some interesting things happen. ANd I expose most of the rumiko Takahashi characters I'd previously put into disguise. You thought I'd forgot about that didn't you? Well HAH! I said it would happen and it is!

Plus, we kind of need to get Aki's thoughts on a lot of event that have happened in this part. Once we get Aki past this point in her life, things aren't over. People don't just insantly recover from things like this you know. And I hate the way some other author's make it seem that way. Oh and we find out a little bit of what happened to Maya too. (you know, the little girl wolf Aki saved in "The Pit and the Pendulum".

That's the end of the stuff you wanted to know. Good thing too. My season is getting in full swing and there's soo many week long breaks to schedule around each other, plants to make grow, and weather to straighten out. Winter is taking his time getting lost. (In case you're confused by that last bit, Haru in Japanese means spring with the proper Kanji!)

REad on!

**Bonsai**

Kagome was getting phenomenally tired of being pushed around. It was a rather annoying constant in her life that had always been there. Granted the pushing wasn't always obvious, and a lot of the time the people doing the pushing meant well, but it was still irritating.

Kagome was so tired of this behavior on the part of nearly every person she knew, she was getting tired of arguing and protesting the matter. The end result was almost always the same and it just seemed such a wasted effort, like when her friends pushed her into dates with Hojo. She always wound up going whatever her mood happened to be at the time.

It was like beating her head against a brick wall, all that really did was give her a headache all the while she did whatever it was she'd protested against doing. And happened entirely too often because of her close association with Inuyasha, the fat head.

True, when Inuyasha physically pushed her around (for there was little chance he could out maneuver her in an argument) it was usually to push her away from harm. Kagome, on her more generous days, could completely appreciate not being impaled or stabbed or decapitated as the next person but sometimes she was sure he was overreacting. A bruise wasn't life threatening in her eyes, hardly worth worrying about. To Inuyasha it was grounds for serious guilt and an apology on his part for not preventing it.

It was a far cry from his initial attempts to terminate her life when they first met, but Kagome refused to care. She wasn't a delicate flower or fragile sculpture. She wasn't going to shatter or fall apart from a bump on the head or a scrape on the knee.

Then there was the hanyou's standard behavior of yelling at her for 'needing' him to save her after every time he successfully prevented her injury. Sometimes she wished he failed every time the blow wouldn't be lethal just because the apology, however unwarranted, was better than the near lethal lecturing she received in place of some minor injury.

Part of it was his way of bragging about himself. She just wished he could do it without making it seem like she was more inept than she actually was. Kagome was the first to admit she wasn't perfect, nobody was. She liked to think that at least some of her skills made up for what faults she could find in herself.

Unfortunately, Inuyasha was louder than her quiet capabilities and her other shard hunting friends had picked up on his behavior subconsciously and begun to mimic his actions. Hell, Sango pushed her away from unspoken threats now. Did they really think her so helpless she couldn't handle a dirty look? She was planning to attend high school in the future; dirty looks were the standard there!

At least she hoped it was just them thinking she was helpless and not something else. Something to do with the supposed sanctity and purity of mikos. Kagome didn't want her friends thinking that way about her. That image was too much pressure to strive for and maintain.

What had started all this?

Ah yes, after all hell broke loose after Sesshoumaru's seemingly premature attack, Kagome found herself shoved this way and that. It wasn't even the "bad guys" that jostled her about either.

Initially it had been Sango moving her out of the way so the Taijiya could heft the Hiraikotsu without worrying about hitting her. That was fine and dandy, except Kagome noticed nobody else was being moved. The inept miko's eye twitched after Sango grazed Miroku's ear proving the slayer shouldn't be worried only about Kagome.

Then she was passed off to the monk that maintained a constant grip on her to insure she didn't step in the line of the Kazaana. She couldn't resist rolling her eyes at his behavior. She'd only done that the one time, and it was on purpose then.

Eventually she was left in the lee of an ancient tree, almost completely isolated from the raging battle. She was so cut off from the action she didn't even have a clear shot at anything, rendering Kagome's one weapon completely useless.

Battles never stay in one place, as Kagome was well aware despite the yelling Inuyasha started up when standing next to the tree left her in ignorance of the approaching danger on the other side. Then it was the dog boy pushing her around while filling her ears with a continuous rant about her idiocy in the heat of battle.

His tirade could have gone on until the end of the engagement if not for the limb that impaled him in her place.

Now she was pissed. "Look you idiot, if you weren't always standing so close to me I could maybe purify a few things!" Kagome yelled at the bleeding hanyou as she distractedly whipped out with her hand and sent a wave of power into the closest batch of would-be attackers. "If I wasn't so damned worried about you jumping in to save me when I don't need it I could maybe protect myself! I don't even know why I care if your stupid ass gets purified," Kagome muttered as she swung around and planted her fist in the face of the first bastard stupid enough to attempt to attack her as she stood over her dog boy in his defense. Her intense, frustration driven anger caused her to release a blast of power that blew the unfortunate youkai's head off, likewise taking out the handful of others behind him.

Inuyasha gaped up at his most constant companion, mouth gone dry in a mix of nerves, awe and blood loss. His nerves were on high alert being this close to a powerful miko that was quite obviously fed up with him at the moment. The awe inevitably lead to another state of being that was inappropriate on the field of battle and unsustainable with the loss of blood. The blood loss needs no explanation.

"You're lucky I like you so damn much," Kagome grumbled as she bent down and placed a gentle hand on either side of the gaping hole in his stomach. Her gentleness quickly had him yelling as she seared the wound closed with the barest bit of "holy" energy.

"Bitch! That hurt!" Inuyasha yelled as soon as his lungs re-inflated with air after he first emptied them with his yelling.

"Shut up, you big baby!" Kagome yelled right back. "Next time I'll just let you bleed out in the middle of a fight, baka!" She stood back up after delivering a solid thwack on his leg. "Aki didn't make such a fuss, and she cauterized her own wound," Kagome muttered.

"What was that?" Inuyasha demanded suspiciously, her words having been drowned by the dull roar of battle going on around them.

"I called you a wimp!" Kagome yelled back as she turned away from the hanyou to blast her power in a wide spray over the latest batch of daredevils.

Inuyasha growled as he took out two opponents with his Sankontesso before grabbing hold of his miko's shoulder and forcing her to face him. "Now just a minute, Bitch!" he began only to be cut off.

"Inuyasha! Kagome, you think maybe we could save this argument for later?" Miroku suggested in a bit of a harried voice. Sango's altercation with her brother wasn't going particularly great and he was having difficulties watching her back without using his Kazaana. Initially he'd been able to use it a lot, before the Saimyoushi moved in. Now it was just the monk, his staff and whatever holy power he had at his beck and call to help him aid his friends. He did _not_ need them to start ignoring the dangers around them to have an argument.

"Sorry Miroku," Kagome shrugged Inuyasha's clawed hand off as she turned to eliminate another batch of youkai. They were actually doing pretty good for a batch of four people against such heavy, undead odds. It was inevitable that it wouldn't last.

A set of sturdy claws made it past the monk's defenses and tore down his side. His yell of distress called aid to him, distracting Sango from blocking another attack of her brother, loosing her grip on her main weapon.

Inuyasha instinctively moved to cover their defense too quickly for Kagome to properly adjust her defense.

A large lumbering youkai came up behind her and the only thing that kept Kagome from becoming pancakes was the demon's deplorable inaccuracy.

The force of the blow landing on the ground so near to where she stood sent her flying through the air. Once again she was being pushed around, but this time it was actually because of an enemy.

Kagome almost sighed in some locked part of her mind. Karma was a bitch. She just knew that because this had happened it would reinforce her friend's beliefs that she needed them to push her out of harm's way. And she hadn't even landed yet.

She didn't flail about or try to alter her trajectory. With her luck, that would just move her from a safe landing to being impaled on a stick. Not that she could actually see where she was headed. Kagome rolled her eyes sullenly as Inuyasha's yelling of her name registered. She wondered if she could start charging him for taking her name in vain?

Surprisingly, Kagome never managed to impact with the ground nor did she wind up impaled on a tree or bush. Somebody caught her. Somebody dressed in furs and a heavy cloak.

Strong, gentle claws set Kagome on her feet. All of her friends started in with a chorus of her name that she continued to ignore. This new arrival tickled the miko-in-training's many senses in a rather intriguing way.

"Call them back, Kagome," a quiet gravelly voice floated out from the darkness under the hooded cloak. "I'll not hold anything back once I engage the bastard and it would be best if they stayed out of the way."

Kagome nodded in bewilderment, without even realizing what the gesture meant. Then the newcomer to the battle stepped away from her and reality swept back in her wake. With the noise came the rushing of her friends in her direction.

They worried the unidentified character had done something to the miko for it was completely unlike Kagome to gape after someone in utter silence.

"Kagome are you all right?" Sango asked in concern.

The miko-in-training blinked at her blankly, the shock of just who had caught her was taking its time to wear off. She'd never heard such a low gravelly voice form that person before and something in the tone let her know all hell was about to break loose. If Kagome's brain had been working coherently she'd realize that she had successfully called all her friends back from the dark hanyou without saying a word. Suddenly her world began to rock violently.

"Kagome, snap out of it!" Inuyasha practically hollered in her ear as he shook her around like a rag doll.

Her arms came up quickly and knocked away his grip. "Stop that you idiot!" Kagome yelled at her dog boy.

"Are you all right?" Miroku asked now that it was clear she had returned to the present.

"I'm fine," she declared firmly and brushed off Inuyasha's searching fingers. "Not a scratch on me."

"Who was that?" Sango gazed after the cloaked figure walking quietly across the field towards Naraku. Any fool that came close to striking the fur clad individual found themselves face first in the dirt.

Before Kagome could answer the sound of a sharp yelp came from the left and slightly behind them, grabbing their attention completely.

Naraku had gotten tired of watching the big dog attack his shield and drip poison everywhere. The poison couldn't reach him inside his shield but the smell of the burned earth at their feet wasn't pleasant. So, when the opportunity arose, the evil conglomeration of youkai around a greedy heart struck out and sent Sesshoumaru flying away from him until the dog struck the tree line at a bad angle.

At that very moment, the cloaked enigma shot forth and landed a powerful punch on Naraku's jaw despite his barrier still in effect. The stunned villain did his own flying from the force of it before landing on his rump some feet away. This new wild card on the field of battle was ruining the flow of _his_ planned events. "How dare you insert yourself into a fight without an invitation?" HE smirked to conceal his irritation at the approaching interloper.

"But I was invited," the gravelly voice laughed darkly. "I've a written invitation signed by you." Slowly the cloak dropped to the ground revealing a golden tuft of hair above the slowly smoothing voice of Aki. "Didn't you know that when you violate a woman, you should be sure she's dead when you leave? You might trigger a psychotic episode you won't enjoy," Aki's eyes flooded red with a roar as a powerful circular barrier she had preset snapped into place.

The quick creation of her barrier stirred up a strong wind that blew against Kanna, Kohaku, and Kagura where all three had dropped the fight and begun to approach the fight with Naraku. Aki had asked them to keep everyone else away from her fight, not that _they_ had stay away from it.

Kohaku reached out with his fingers to brush against the energy and immediately brought his hand back from it. "Why did she bother to ask us?" he asked the other two.

"Wait a minute!" Inuyasha bellowed as he and Miroku slowly made it to the quarantined ring of combat. "You knew Aki was alive?"

"Aki called to us a sennight ago," Kanna murmured in a detached voice, her eyes intent on the scene unfolding around Naraku. She completely ignored the dog boy's fit to focus on the battle that could very well decide her future.

Naraku's horrified expression couldn't seem to dissipate. The dead had once again risen on him. First Kikyou after he'd left lines on her shoulder and now Aki. Naraku was beginning to suspect something about the permanency of any extermination he personally dealt out.

"You like collecting the Shikon shards," Aki help up the little jar she'd swiped from Kagome. She emptied the bottle and caught the shards in her bare hand. "Come and get them," she growled and allowed her youki to completely slip its leash. She took one more step forward before her beast leapt from her skin.

Naraku quickly moved to get out of the way allowing Aki's first blow to kick up so much dust and dirt it obscured everything contained by Aki's latest circle.

"What do you mean she called you?" Inuyasha demanded. "You knew she wasn't dead and didn't say anything!"

Kagura rolled her eyes, "We don't exactly communicate stupid. We didn't have time either. You guys didn't exactly stay in one easy to find place did you?"

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled at that moment. He had looked back at her to find her trying to help his feral half brother in his inu form. Was the girl crazy? "Don't touch him!"

Sesshoumaru, in his weakened instinctive state, snapped at her with a ferocious growl. He didn't care that she was all but his brother's mate. He didn't care that she meant to help him. All he recognized was that he was in pain and she was not his pack or mate.

Kagome sucked her teeth in disapproval and ignored Inuyasha's shout. Sesshoumaru couldn't stay in this state. He would hate himself if he missed an opportunity to witness something new about Aki. And he would forever regret it if these turned out to be Aki's last moments.

Sango tapped her Hiraikotsu against the inu's nose sharply, but without much force. Her actions caused the growling sounds to cease abruptly as he blinked in surprise.

"Sesshoumaru," Kagome started out soft and low so as to make him flick his ears towards her to catch the sounds. "You're not hurt that bad that I can see, but Aki, I think Aki has been else we would have found her and I doubt she waited to completely heal properly before Attacking Naraku. She's in there, angry and alone and we don't know if she'll survive. Don't you want to watch her to know how it turns out for yourself?" The little ninth grader continued talking in this vein at length.

To Inuyasha's surprise, Kagome's efforts managed to calm the taiyoukai down enough to where the lord could regain his human form once again.

"Where is she?" Sesshoumaru growled the first moment possible.

"She's in there," Inuyasha gestured towards the barrier as he hauled his crazy, surprising female to her feet.

The youkai lord climbed to his feet slowly, the residual pain in his head where his skull had smacked into the trees sent aching darts through all of his nerve endings. His vision swam a little with each move, but he was determined to be as close to Aki as he could.

Inuyasha quickly dragged Kagome away from Sesshoumaru without looking back.

"Stupid dog boy," Sango muttered as she stood next to the youkai lord still struggling to rise successfully to his feet. The Youkai exterminator bent to lift him the rest of the way to his feet. She growled at him when he snarled at her aid. "You want to go over there or not?" she demanded petulantly. "It will be all over by the time you get there if you don't let me help you."

Sesshoumaru swallowed his growl and some of his pride. The growl was starting to make him nauseous anyway and he was all for efficiency in approaching Aki.

"Kouga!" Kagome gasped as the Ookami careened into sight heading straight for the contained dust cloud that concealed Aki and her beat down on Naraku.

Kouga, for once, ignored Kagome completely, single-mindedly focused on his purpose for leaving his territory.

"Get out of there, you stupid bitch!" he pounded his fist against the crackling surface of the barrier. His words ignited growls from all factions in the area that growled, and even a few that normally wouldn't.

"Watch your mouth!" Kagome yelled. "You have no right to talk about Aki like that!"

"I have every right to talk about that idiot any way I please!" Kouga growled back at her. "She is endangering the life of a pack female!"

Most of the crew assembled gazed at each other in confusion. "Naraku…" Miroku began incredulously, "is a female of your pack?"

"No," Kouga was dumbfounded before deciding the monk must have been dropped on his head in his infancy. A Lot. "Aki is a female of my pack."

An instant later Sesshoumaru had Kouga held up uncomfortably against Aki's circle despite the nausea and pain the move created in him.

"Not that kind of female of his pack, stupid!" an irritated male voice declared from behind them. "Aki keeps her promises fool!" Fred rolled his eyes at the youkai as Kouga crumpled to the ground after a well-placed punch to the gut. "Great idea, punish him for your own failings. Aki's sure to approve of that."

"Give him a break," Inuyasha growled. "We thought Aki was dead until she decked Naraku!"

Fred glared past them, "she would have been, if not for the wolf you just winded. Great way to thank him, by the way," the ghost drawled as he watched the dust swirl and dance in the container Aki had made for it.

This time it was Kikyou who came into sight, followed by her pet soul collectors. She glared at the flying dirt as if it was the root of all evil in her not-life. "If she tears out even one stitch, I'll kill her myself." It had taken the miko nearly a week to stitch everything up successfully, but Aki had torn them out so many times with restless movement and too much activity Kikyou was positive the partial youkai would never heal properly.

Kagome blinked at her preincarnation. "When did you stitch her up?"

"Almost a full moon cycle ago," Kikyou grumbled, and she'd seemed to do nothing but stitch her up since. "And if she tears them again, she'll wish Naraku had killed her when I get my hands on her."

"Now, now Kikyou," Fred smirked. "An angry, dead Aki is way less fun than an Angry, living Aki." He crossed his arms and considered the opaque cloud blocking the view. "Though I doubt Aki is quite pissed off for the reasons she should be. Right now I think she's still focusing on Naraku's threat to the larger community than on what he did to her specifically. Since the death of her family Aki's spent most of her time ignoring personal injury for the greater good beyond her small world. Naraku, by resorting to unprejudiced violence as evidenced by the attacking on innocent by standers of any species or breed, has proven himself, not only mad, but a threat to that greater good Aki works to serve."

"Naraku has been targeting wolves," Kouga explained. "But he didn't go after just us. Any female that happened to be in range was a possible target."

"So Aki is policing a general threat?" Miroku asked.

"That and she's getting even for the damage he's already done," Fred smirked. "and at the same time she's testing her limits."

"She told you this?" Sesshoumaru demanded of the ghost.

"Well," the apparition looked away, "no."

"Do you know what she intended to do here?" Sesshoumaru growled dangerously.

"No."

"Then for all you know, she could simply be hoping Naraku will finish the job!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Aki wouldn't –" Fred began.

"Women are changed after such an assault on their person," Miroku cut him off smoothly. "I have never met a woman who wasn't."

"Aki was fragile before," Sango observed.

"She is also very strong," Kanna replied coolly, her eyes still watching the churning cloud of dust.

"She can't be both," Inuyasha declared.

"The two are not exclusionary," Fred shook his head. "The shell of an egg is undeniably fragile, but remarkably strong for its size as well."

"Aki is not an egg!" the dog boy exclaimed.

"Would you please shut up!" Kohaku gazed at them in irritation.

"Something is happening," Kagura stated calmly. The undead boy turned back to the barrier. The three of them cared nothing for the arguing group of people; too much was riding on the outcome of Aki's battle. Their future, Kanna and Kagura's survival, Kohaku's justice were all at stake.

A glowing light started up high on the column of flying dirt, above their heads and into the sky. It grew in size until it rivaled the sun in its magnificence. Then the ball of light began a rapid descent, coming to land. The brightness of it on impact forced the observers to turn away or go blind.

A scream of outrage, disbelief and pain rent the air, then the darker light of day crept back into their sight.

Slowly the dust began to settle and reveal the chimeric creature that was Aki's hennyo form. Whatever color her scales, skin and fur had been was obscured under the overwhelming color of spilled blood and Naraku was nowhere in sight. The red beast's eyes glowed like rubies glinting in the sun.

Suddenly Kanna fell to her knees clutching at her shoulder with a gasp, tears squeezed out of her eyes. "So much pain!"

"Kanna!" Kagura gasped as she knelt at her sister's side.

"And Rage," Kohaku's eyes were wide in shock and pain. Sango reached out to comfort him in worry. "It burns!"

Kikyou carefully shook her head even as she too clutched at wounds that weren't there. She remained on her feet where the others had fallen, failing to feel surprised at the suddenness of it. "I knew she was keeping it to herself."

Hennyo Aki raised her magnificent head and let out a screaming roar that was inarticulate only in its volume. This time the air inside the circle was obscured by white/blue and purple clouds.

A few minute later the colored air resolved itself into two distinct bodies that flanked a once again human looking Aki. The former English tutor bent to uproot a rather gnarled looking bonsai tree violently before straightening and leading the way towards the awaiting crowd of people.

Aki brushed her hand out and dropped the energy of the barrier. "Kagome," she began in grim humor. "How is your grandfather at bonsai?"

It was a bit of a joke in Kagome's family that, while her grandfather didn't have a black thumb, he certainly didn't have a green thumb either. Souta was the first who suggested the old man had a gray thumb that, though not lethal to most plants, kept them from thriving to the priest's chagrin. "You know grandpa has never trusted himself with something that delicate," she replied honestly.

Inuyasha's nose twitched as he moved closer to the uprooted miniature tree to properly evaluate what his senses were telling him. He didn't notice Aki stiffen as he all but brushed her fingers wrapped around the twisted trunk. "Naraku?" Inuyasha gaped in disbelief. "You turned Naraku into a bonsai tree?"

"I still say she should have killed him," the male figure behind Aki grumped, his purple eyes flashing.

"She has her reasons for this," the female admonished him calmly.

"You want to give my grandfather a Naraku tree?" Kagome gasped as the lights turned on inside her brain. "You must really want to torment him."

Aki handed the diminutive tree to the younger girl silently.

"It is a punishment tailor made for the bastard," Kagura snarled. Kanna glanced up at her sister. "He's no longer the manipulator. No longer able to gather power to himself at the expense of others. He is now the manipulated, weak and fragile."

"It suits him," Kohaku cocked his head to the side.

"What about Miroku's hand though?" Sango demanded.

Aki gave the male a significant look. "All right, all right," he grumbled. He gathered a bit of purple cloud in his hand and approached the monk.

Miroku gazed at the creature before him warily, tempted to step back before the mini cloud was thrust through his cursed hand. He stared at his hand, uneasy with the strange tingling sensation dancing along the edges of the Kazaana.

"It will not grow, except with over use and it will shrink with disuse," the other creature attending to Aki explained. "If you never use it again, it will eventually disappear as Naraku's connection with it wanes," the speaker turned to the wind youkai child of Naraku and handed her something of equal value to her. "This belongs to you."

Aki nodded at the two silently and they evaporated on the wind.

"Who were they?" Sango wondered in awe.

"Those were gods," Aki answered evenly.

"Aki," Sesshoumaru mumbled before weakly moving to approach her. Kagura blocked his way without a word and looked to where Kikyou had stepped up to speak.

The undead miko had been studying her latest patient carefully, searching for any residue of Aki's previous injuries and found none. Aki was physically perfectly healthy. "What will you do now?" she asked, almost certain that the partial youkai didn't intend to go back to the wolves den.

Aki blinked tiredly, "I think I'll go home."

"Sound good," Fred shrugged, he knew she wanted to go somewhere familiar and comfortable to lick her wounds and deal with the aftermath of what Naraku had done to her.

"The pack will be there for you when you need us," Kouga nodded allowing her the opening she needed to bolt out of sight and on her way.

"You think that's all right?" Kikyou asked the ookami prince.

"The way Maya's been acting, I'm surprised she didn't leave sooner," the wolf youkai replied. A thought struck him, "Damnit! What am I going to tell Maya?"


End file.
